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31 Harv. J. on Legis. 395 (1994)
Reconstruction of Federalism: A Constitutional Amendment to Prohibit Unfunded Mandates

handle is hein.journals/hjl31 and id is 401 raw text is: ARTICLE RECONSTRUCTION OF FEDERALISM: A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROHIBIT UNFUNDED MANDATES CONGRESSMAN PAUL GILLMOR* FRED EAMES** Unfunded mandates are a serious problem burdening state and local governments. When Congress directs localities to comply with expensive mandates without offering financial assistance, states must often decrease crucial local services in order to meet the mandates' requirements. The authors are keenly aware of the profound effects unfunded mandates can have on states' budgets, decision making power, and autonomy. They suggest a constitutional amendment prohibiting these Congressional di- rectives as the only way to solve the many difficulties resulting from the glut of unfinded mandates. Conditions are ripe for a catastrophic shift in American fed- eralism. Congress stands poised with virtually unchecked power to bury state and local governments with the cost of implement- ing and complying with mandated federal programs. Often the programs are unnecessarily expensive and inadequately tailored to a legitimate objective. These unfunded mandates1 not only are helping to push many governments to perilous financial footing, but also are unduly enlarging the sphere of congressional domin- ion. This Article will explain why this is not the kind of coop- erative governance our forefathers intended and will support a constitutional amendment as a remedy. As an example of the notion of unfunded mandates, take the mandated federal regulations which require cities to keep atrazine levels in drinking water below three parts per billion.2 A human would have to drink over 3000 gallons of water per day with three parts per billion atrazine to equal the dose found to be * Republican Congressman from Ohio. B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University; J.D., Uni- versity of Michigan Law School. The author, a third-term Congressman, serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he is a member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, Transportation and Hazardous Materials, and Energy and Power. -Legislative Assistant to Congressman Gillmor. B.A., Allegheny College, 1986; member, class of 1994, George Washington University National Law Center. IFor purposes of this Article, the term unfunded mandate refers to a federal requirement imposed upon a state or local government by the Congress, or by a federal agency acting under statutory authority, without full federal funding. 2National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, 40 C.F.R. § 141.61 (1993).

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