[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 51 (Friday, April 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S3738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NATIONAL COUNTY GOVERNMENT WEEK

 Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize National 
County Government Week from April 21 to 27.
  National County Government Week is an important opportunity to 
remember the values on which our country was founded. County 
governments have an advantage over the mammoth Federal bureaucracy--
county governments are able to keep in touch with their constituency.
  Before the voters in Montana asked me to represent them in 
Washington, DC, the voters in Yellowstone County asked me to be their 
commissioner. I know from experience that county governments can easily 
maintain a high level of efficiency.
  Local governments don't compromise the sovereignty of the individual, 
which tends to be the case with the Federal Government. Mr. President, 
as the role of today's Federal Government expands, so does its 
intervention into the privacy of individuals.
  The Montana Association of County Governments, also known as MACO, 
along with its national parent organization NACO, has the ability to 
reallocate the power of the Federal bureaucracy in a manner that would 
benefit all Montana taxpayers.
  The goal of the Republican agenda, a goal I heartily support, is the 
redistribution of Federal power to the State, county and local 
governments. As a former Yellowstone County commissioner, I had face-
to-face encounters with Montana taxpayers on a daily basis. If a 
Montanan had a concern about local, State, and even Federal issues, all 
they had to do was pick up the phone and call me at the office or at 
home--my number was listed. And whether they wanted to talk about the 
neighbors' cattle that seemed to always be loose or potholes you could 
lose a tractor in, my experiences as a Yellowstone County elected 
official were a valuable lesson in where the rubber really meets the 
road.

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