BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION WOULD ALLOW STATES TO CHALLENGE FEDERAL LAWS

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to shift political power back to the states, a broad
bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate is preparing legislation that
would make it harder for Congress and the executive branch to adopt laws and
rules that pre-empt the states on a wide range of issues, from drugs and the
environment to health and worker safety.

The legislation would provide local authorities with broad new power to go
to court to challenge federal laws and regulations that fail to explicitly
mention what state statutes and regulations are pre-empted.

Lawmakers say the House and Senate measures follow the overall political
philosophy embodied in three opinions handed down by the Supreme Court in
June, on the last day of its term. The decisions imposed sharp new curbs on
the ability of Congress to make federal law binding on the states.

For years, state and local lawmakers maintained that Washington officials,
supported by the courts, have ignored the impact of federal decisions on the
authority of the states.

But the proposed legislation has prompted opposition from an unusual
coalition of big business, environmental, labor and consumer-advocacy groups.

Some critics say the measures would eliminate a national standard for many
issues that affect commerce, and lead to a balkanization of rules on
everything from auto standards to worker safety, making it far more
expensive to do business.

Others say they fear that any weakening of the ability of the federal
government to impose uniform national standards could lead to a substantial
weakening of environmental and consumer protections.

But Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee and sponsor of the Senate bill, said that critics were wildly
distorting the consequences of the legislation, which he said was not much
more than "truth in government and truth in legislating."

"This legislation says that we will not be willy-nilly pre-empting state and
local governments without explicitly saying that is what we intend to do,"
he said.