click here to view full editorial By Editorial Board, Standard-Examiner Score one for U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop in a battle with the feds. Our local U.S. House member took the National Park Service to task for its attempt to rely on an opinion piece, rather than scientific data, as evidence for alleged methane leakage rates from oil and gas. Last week, the NPS admitted it had erred. Jon Jarvis, Park Service director, asked that the claims be withdrawn from the record. Jarvis added that the NPS broke...
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Rep. Bishop Responding to a Question on Federalism Linda Upmeyer, ALEC National Chair, Introducing the Panel State Legislators Watching the Panel
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By Adam Freedman Both Right and Left are telling Washington to back off. Summer 2013 In February 2013, Utah governor Gary Herbert canceled plans to establish a state-run exchange for individual health insurance, bringing to 34 the number of states opting out of that essential piece of the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, another part of the law, an expansion of Medicaid rolls, is being defied by more than 20 states. Having survived congressional logrolling, Tea Party rallies, a presidential elect...
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BY Lindsey Burke, Heritage Foundation On Thursday, lawmakers in both the House and the Senate introduced a conservative alternative to No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act (A-PLUS) would allow states to completely opt out of the programs that fall under NCLB and empower state and local leaders to direct funding to their most pressing education needs. Specifically, A-PLUS would send funding under NCLB back to states in the form of block grants, and states ...
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By Michael Carnuccio The Liberty Foundation of Oklahoma Libertyfound.org People thrive on competition. We should apply the relevant adjective “competitive” to the abiding concept “federalism” to illuminate the inherent advantage of a truly federal system of government. Like so many of the ideas enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the concept of “federalism” was considered by the Founders to be essential to the success of the American experiment. In Federalist, No. 39, James Madison reassured cri...
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By Tom Steward | Watchdog Minnesota ANOKA, Minn. — After years of rhetoric and rulings out of Washington, D.C., reality is hitting home as Minnesota counties scramble to implement and pay for what one frustrated county board leader calls the “not so Affordable Care Act” for local property taxpayers. NOW WHAT?: Anoka County Board chair Rhonda Sivarajah says health care mandate ‘not so affordable’ for local property taxpayers. “Locally, we are just beginning to fully realize how unaffordable the ...
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By CHRISTINA CORIER, Wall Street Journal [read online here] As the battle over Medicaid expansion rages in the states, supporters of expansion have dusted off an age-old favorite in making the case for taking federal dollars. They say: If our state doesn't take the money, those dollars will go to some other state instead. Happily, in this instance that is not true. When a state declines to expand Medicaid coverage to more people, no other state will receive its share of funds and federal spendin...
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WASHINGTON – Today the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held a hearing examining, “State Forest Management: A Model for Promoting Healthy Forests, Rural Schools and Jobs.” The hearing was an opportunity to hear from state leaders, local land managers and timber experts on the inadequacies and burdens of current federal forest management practices that have contributed to poor forest health, underfunded schools, lost jobs, and suppressed economic activities in commu...
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Phil Taylor, E&E News A leading House Republican yesterday urged the president to exercise caution before designating a national monument to protect a rugged river gorge in northern New Mexico, arguing that the area is under no immediate threat of development. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, said Congress ought to decide whether New Mexico's Rio Grande Gorge and Taos Plateau receive permanent protections. "This...
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In Fiscal Year 2011, the federal government sent states and localities $542 billion through approximately 1,000 different federal grant programs. States and localities returned close to $3.7 billion in unspent awarded grants back to the federal government. This unspent grant money is typically returned back to the federal granting agency for redistribution of the originally awarded grants. One recent example where states returned unspent federal grant dollars includes Governors Sam Brownback (KS...
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