Gingrich Vow on Mandate Costs Is Music to Local Leaders’ Ears

Local government officials cemented a somewhat reluctant partnership on Tuesday with incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to reduce the burden of federal requirements on municipal government unless sufficient funding is provided.

Gingrich said that the new Congress will put the so-called unfunded mandates at the top of the legislative agenda when it opens in January.

Randall Franke, president of the National Assn. of Counties, said Gingrich convinced him that the new GOP leaders of Congress will give local officials “the flexibility we need, the relief we need from some of the traditional regulations coming out of Washington.”

Unfunded mandates, which include such programs as the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, have become a particular sore spot with city and state officials, whose governments are expected to pay for them.

Gingrich met with Franke and U.S. Conference of Mayors President Victor Ashe at the Capitol. Gingrich said afterward that he looks forward to working with local leaders to reduce costly federal mandates.

“I simply pledged on behalf of the House Republicans that from unfunded mandates to rethinking the whole regulatory process to looking at the tax codes, we’re going to do everything we can to work directly with cities and counties and to make sure that as a team that we return power to the American people and we create more flexibility in local communities to solve local problems without coming to Washington,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich’s willingness to pursue legislation on unfunded mandates signals one of the early issues that the new Republican-controlled Congress is likely to address when it convenes. Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) has said that such reform will be introduced in January in the Senate.

The outgoing Congress tried to tackle unfunded mandates this year with the backing of the Clinton Administration, but the effort was stalled by liberal Democrats who think that uniform federal standards need to be set in such areas as health and safety, where state and local regulations are inconsistent or do not exist.