68th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--1995 Regular Session NOTE: Matter within { + braces and plus signs + } in an amended section is new. Matter within { - braces and minus signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within { + braces and plus signs + } . LC 1497 House Concurrent Resolution 9 Sponsored by Representatives MARKHAM, HAYDEN; Representatives BRIAN, FISHER, MONTGOMERY, STARR, TARNO, VANLEEUWEN SUMMARY The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's brief statement of the essential features of the measure as introduced. Instructs Federal Government to cease and desist mandates beyond the scope of its constitutionally dedicated power. CONCURRENT RESOLUTION To the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate of the United States: We, the Sixty-eighth Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows: Whereas the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: ' The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'; and Whereas the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the United States Constitution and no more; and Whereas the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the Federal Government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and Whereas today, in 1995, the states are in fact treated as agents of the Federal Government; and Whereas memorials have been forwarded to the Federal Government by the Oregon Legislative Assembly without any response or result from Congress or the Federal Government; and Whereas many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and Whereas the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and Whereas a number of proposals now pending from the present administration and from Congress would further violate the United States Constitution; now, therefore, Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon: (1) That the State of Oregon hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all other powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the Federal Government by the United States Constitution. (2) That the Federal Government, as our agent, is hereby instructed to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated power. (3) A copy of this resolution shall be sent to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate of the United States and to each house of each state's legislature of the United States of America. ----------