Resolution Opposing the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991 Encroachment on State Sovereignty Exposed

The Resolution Opposing the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991 was included in the 1995 ALEC Sourcebook of American State Legislation, but does not include adoption or approval information. ALEC has attempted to distance itself from this piece of legislation after the launch of ALECexposed.org in 2011, but it has done nothing to get it repealed in the states where it previously pushed for it to be made into law.

ALEC Resolution Text

Summary

ALEC’s resolution requests the U.S. Congress to repeal the sanctions and federal mandates in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act (ISTEA) of 1991. State sovereignty is increasingly under attack and states must be given the authority to choose their best course of action.

Model Resolution

WHEREAS, the tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 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 limits on Congressional authority to regulate state activities prescribed by the Tenth Amendment have gradually been eroded and federal mandates and sanctions to the states have become excessive; and

WHEREAS, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 having had inserted into it, an unreasonable excess of sanctions and federal mandates, thus not allowing States the ability to regulate funds or issues in a manner that will best serve the State or its citizenry; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Legislative Exchange Council, respectfully requests that the U.S. Congress repeal those sanctions and federal mandates in ISTEA and that it refrain from infringing upon the sovereignty of the states as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution in the future.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this Resolution be forward to each and every member of the Congress of the United States.