[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 48 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)] [House] [Page H1897] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] PROPER BALANCE BETWEEN STATE AND FEDERAL POWERS The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, Justice Brandeis, as we have talked once before, has said States are the ideal laboratory for democracy, for indeed they have the better ability of being creative, and, if the creation goes wrong, can move back from that, from the Federal Government. For indeed when we try to be creative, and it goes wrong, the entire Nation has an impact with it. The idea of a Sunset Commission is one which has been experimented on by various States, various times for a several or a few years now. As our good friend Mr. Brady from Texas clearly said, it has proven effective in cutting away bureaucracy, eliminating inefficient agencies, letting go of outdated programs, and also saving the taxpayers money. Another way of saying that is this Commission can make citizens of America more free, can keep government within its proper bounds and help us to keep more of our own money and rule our own lives, which is another reason why the Constitutional Caucus is supporting the creation of this Sunset Commission. The administration actually started this ball rolling several years ago with the introduction of their Program Assessment Rating Tool, or PART, the results of which have been the basis of administrative decisions on budget proposals every year now. The key now is to give these recommendations some legislative teeth, which is something that the former Director, as well as the Budget Director of OMB, has urged us. He wrote, one time, we need to involve Congress more directly in holding agencies and programs accountable for their performance through a Sunset Commission which provides regular formal scrutiny of Federal programs. This bipartisan Commission would review each Federal program on a schedule established by Congress to determine whether it is producing results and should continue to exist. Programs would automatically terminate according to the schedule, unless the Congress took action to continue them. Mr. Speaker, I suggest also that one of the things we might want to do is expand it to one other role. Many States, including mine, have a regulatory oversight committee, which means a committee of the legislative body which meets on a regular basis to review all rules that are established and step in where rules established by the bureaucracy become egregious. Let's face it. All legislative bodies are sometimes sloppy. Sometimes we have a grand idea, and then we will empower an agency to implement that idea. Oftentimes those implementations, those rules and regulations, they go awry. When there happens to be nobody directly accessible or accountable to citizens who can then go to that and attack and change that rule, well, that is when problems develop. That is why we need to have legislative bodies who could step in and set things right. Much of the erosion of States rights in our country's history has come from unaccountable Federal agencies that grow and then wrap their arms around States and people and don't ever want to let go. Congress has certainly done its part to ignore 10th amendment issues. Courts have also siphoned off some power. But a slow and insidious encroachment of Federal agencies is perhaps the worst of these influences. A Sunset Commission would put us on the road to solving this. It would force every Federal agency to its usefulness, review its own mission, justify its own existence, or face some kind of elimination. It would also allow a review of regulations and standards to make sure they are logical, legitimate, and within the scope of the legislative empowerment that created them in the first place. I appreciate the opportunity being here on the same evening when Mr. Brady, the gentleman from Texas, reintroduced his bill to the American people of having a Sunset Commission. I appreciate also being here when the gentleman from New Jersey Mr. Garrett talks about the Constitutional Caucus and the effort it is to try to reestablish the right and proper balance between government; for indeed the purpose of that is to ensure that the power belongs to people to rule their own lives, to States to be in their sphere of government, and the Federal Government to maintain its balance and its purpose where it was constitutionally designed to be. ____________________