00CS FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 44(WTR)                                                                             
01 Relating to mandates and other conditions imposed on the states by the federal                                          
02 government.                                                                                                             
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
04  WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States states:                                         
05 "The powers not delegated to the United States by the                                                                 
06 Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to                                                       
07 the States respectively, or to the people."; and                                                                        
08  WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being                                        
09 that specifically granted by the United States Constitution and no more; and                                            
10  WHEREAS the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the                                             
11 federal government was created by the states specifically to assume the responsibility for                              
12 exercising certain powers on behalf of the union as a whole, including the responsibility to                            
13 provide the funding needed to carry out those powers; and                                                               
14  WHEREAS, in recent years, the states have been demonstrably mistreated by the                                        

01 federal government and used to carry out federal policy while bearing the costs of that policy;                         
02 and                                                                                                                     
03  WHEREAS many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment;                                      
04 and                                                                                                                     
05  WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States,                                      
06 112 S.Ct. 2408 (1992), that "Congress may not simply 'commandeer the legislative processes                              
07 of the States by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program'";                          
08 and                                                                                                                     
09  WHEREAS a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now                                             
10 pending from the present administration and from the Congress would further violate the                                 
11 Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and                                                           
12  WHEREAS the powers of the Congress are itemized in art. I, sec. 8, of the United                                     
13 States Constitution, and the Congress should concentrate on carrying out those important                                
14 duties while leaving local matters to each of the states to resolve based upon the unique needs                         
15 and circumstances of each state; and                                                                                    
16  WHEREAS  numerous resolutions have been forwarded to the federal government by                                       
17 various state legislatures without any response or result from the Congress or the federal                              
18 executive branch;                                                                                                       
19  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty under                                     
20 the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise                              
21 enumerated and granted to the federal government by that constitution; and be it                                        
22  FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serves as notice to the federal                                                
23 government to immediately cease and desist from imposing mandates on the states that are                                
24 beyond the scope of its authority under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the                                  
25 United States.                                                                                                          
26  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                              
27 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
28 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Strom Thurmond, President Pro Tempore of the U.S.                                     
29 Senate; the Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; to the                           
30 Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the                                         
31 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress;                                 

01 and to the governor of each of Alaska's sister states.