00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 16                                                                                          
01 Relating to mandates imposed on the states by the federal government.                                                   
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03  WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States states:                                           
04 "The powers not delegated to the United States by the                                                                 
05 Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to                                                       
06 the States respectively, or to the people."; and                                                                        
07  WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being                                          
08 that specifically granted by the United States Constitution and no more; and                                            
09  WHEREAS the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the                                               
10 federal government was created by the states specifically to assume the responsibility for                              
11 exercising certain powers on behalf of the union as a whole, including the responsibility to                            
12 provide the funding needed to carry out those powers; and                                                               
13  WHEREAS, today, the states are demonstrably treated as tools of the federal                                            
14 government used to carry out federal policy while bearing the costs of that policy; and                                 

01  WHEREAS many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment;                                        
02 and                                                                                                                     
03  WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States,                                        
04 112 S.Ct. 2408 (1992), that the Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative                                      
05 processes of the states; and                                                                                            
06  WHEREAS a number of proposals now pending before the Congress may further                                              
07 violate the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and                                                      
08  WHEREAS numerous resolutions addressing various mandates imposed on the states                                         
09 by federal law have been sent to the federal government by the Alaska State Legislature                                 
10 without any response or result;                                                                                         
11  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty under                                       
12 the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise                              
13 enumerated and granted to the federal government by that constitution; and be it                                        
14  FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serves as notice and demand to the                                               
15 federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, imposing mandates on the states                          
16 that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.                                                     
17  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                                
18 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
19 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Strom Thurmond, President Pro Tempore of the U.S.                                     
20 Senate; the Honorable Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; to the                               
21 Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the                                         
22 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress;                                 
23 and to the governor of each of Alaska's sister states.