Better Late Than Never

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The Mark Sanford Amendment:

SEC. 1607. (a) CERTIFICATION BY GOVERNOR — Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, for funds provided to any State or agency thereof, the Governor of the State shall certify that: 1) the State request and use funds provided by this Act , and; 2) funds be used to create jobs and promote economic growth.

(b) ACCEPTANCE BY STATE LEGISLATURE — If funds provided to any State in any division of this Act are not accepted for use by the Governor, then acceptance by the State legislature, by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution, shall be sufficient to provide funding to such State.

I appear to be behind the times on this issue, but this is a very important piece of the stimulus bill to our brave governors standing up for state rights. Even if our even headed governors refuse the federal "strings attached" funding, their state legislature may be able to overrule them with a simple resolution.

I definitely need to do some research here, because it doesn't seem constitutional for Congress to dictate what a state legislature can do to overturn a decision by the Governor. Here the federal government is dictating how state governments will work, violating state sovereignty and affecting the balance of power between the State's branches of government.

It would appear that Sanford and any other governor who refuses these federal funds will have Supreme Court Litigation in their future. This Congress is out of control and needs to be reigned in.

Here's to 2010!