Federalism

Key Points
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Key Points
  • Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides for the states to call an Amendments Convention when the federal government exceeds its constitutional authority. Amendments to limit the government’s power, including a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, would help to check federal overreach.
  • More than 50 percent of territory from Colorado westward is managed by the federal government despite evidence that the states would serve as superior environmental and economic stewards of the land. Western states that petition for control of select federal lands within their borders should receive it as control over the land inside its boundaries is state sovereignty at its most basic. National parks and monuments, military installations, Congressionally-designated wilderness areas and tribal lands would be excluded from transfers.
  • Unfunded federal mandates are inconsistent with federalism, which was based on cooperation, not compulsion and the regulations that often accompany unfunded mandates impose obligations on state governments resulting in unsustainable costs and inefficiencies.

Genuine accountability to hardworking taxpayers results when state and local legislators work with members of the community to determine a plan of action that is right for each individual state, city or town. Real solutions to America’s challenges can be found in the states – America’s fifty laboratories of democracy – not in one-size fits all federal government policies that disregard regional differences and local community needs. The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution encapsulates these ideas and serves as the Constitutional linchpin for federalism, one of ALEC’s three guiding principles.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

America has drifted away from our Founding Fathers’ vision and has concentrated more power with national government structures. The amassing of power with the federal government has led to overregulation and redundant bureaucracy hindering economic growth and free markets; a ballooning national debt that threatens U.S. security and federal mismanagement of this nation’s most precious resource – the lands within America’s borders. The solution to restoring the balance between the federal and state and local governments is to return control over matters that more appropriately and constitutionally rest with the states and municipalities back to them. There are some obvious examples of federal overreach where reform is needed.

Articles

Federalism

ALEC Policy Champions Safeguard American Votes in Five States

Karla Jones/June 12, 2024
Federalism

The Threat to Undermine Property Rights & State Regulatory Authority: An ALEC Women’s Leadership Episode

Federalism

Correcting the Record on the Amendments Convention: Rob Natelson and Karla Jones in the Colorado Times Recorder

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Publications

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Model Policies

  • Resolution Reaffirming Support for the U.S. State-Based System of Title Insurance Regulation in Response to Growing Federal Encroachment Final

    WHEREAS, the U.S. state-based system of insurance regulation has effectively protected consumers and helped create the largest, most competitive and innovative insurance market in the world; and WHEREAS, Congress has continually affirmed the primacy of state-based insurance regulation, including in the McCarran-Ferguson Act in 1945 and most recently in the…

  • Presumption of State Jurisdiction Amendments Final

    Highlighted Provisions: This model: establishes that jurisdiction over subject matters not enumerated to the federal government in the United States Constitution remains with the state of ____; provides that any presumption against state jurisdiction is overcome only by a federal demonstration of specific constitutional authorization; places the burden on the…

  • Constitutional Sovereignty Act Final

    General Description: This model enacts this state’s Constitutional Sovereignty Act. Highlighted Provisions: This bill: Defines terms; Establishes a framework for this legislative chamber to prohibit the enforcement of a federal directive within the state by government officers if this state’s legislature determines the federal directive violates the principles of state…

  • Safeguard American Votes and Elections Act (SAVE Act) Final

    (1) In all elections, including primary elections, for any local, state, or federal public office, the following shall be prohibited: a. Voting systems that permit a voter to vote for more than one candidate for the same office; b. Voting systems that permit a voter to…

  • Act to Ensure US Amendments Ratified by Article V State Conventions are a Vote of “We the People” Final

    An act to ensure that all Amendments added to the US Constitution by State Conventions are “an explicit and authentic act of the whole people.”   Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of {STATE}: Section 1. Whenever the Congress of the United States or an Article…

  • Article V Application for a Federal Fiscal Responsibility Amendments Convention to Curb Runaway Inflation and Restore Fiscal Sanity Final

    TO MAKE APPLICATION FOR AN INFLATION-FIGHTING, FEDERAL FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AMENDMENTS (FRA) CONVENTION; TO DEMAND CONGRESS EXPEDITIOUSLY PASS A RESOLUTION DIRECTING THE ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES TO TRACK AND MAKE PUBLIC A LIST OF APPLICATIONS, AND STIPULATING RATIFICATION BY A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE IN STATE CONVENTIONS. Whereas, Article V…

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Task Forces

Federalism and International Relations

State legislators and their constituents are stakeholders in many of the most important national and international…

Press Releases

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