Executive Order on Federalism

In May 1998, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13083 on Federalism. Its centralizing language generated such a firestorm of opposition from conservatives and state and local elected officials that the House of Representatives voted 417-2 to reject it. On August 5, 1998, the President 'suspended" the order and went back to the drawing board.

Exactly a year later, the President issued a second executive order (13132). This one tilted in the opposite direction, forbidding federal agencies from preempting state law unless the Congressional bill contains an overt intention to do so. In determining whether to establish uniform national standards, the president orders federal agenices to "defer to the States to establish standards."

"Who shall have the power to make the rules?" is rapidly becoming a central question in American politics. Much of the discussion revolves around the relationship between Washington and the states. The position of the New Rules Project is that the burden of proof should be on a higher level of government to justify its intervention in local affairs.

More:

• Full Text of Former President Clinton's 1999 Executive Order on Federalism (Order 13132)