Federal Top 10: on the agenda in Washington D.C., are--at the very least--10 issues that state legislators will keep their eyes on.

• Author: Tubbesing, Carl

Theodore Roosevelt famously characterized the presidency as a "bully pulpit." Two days after the election, President George W. Bush used that bully pulpit to set the country's policy agenda and establish priorities.

"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it," he told reporters. President Bush described his determination to push for reforms on several fronts, most prominently, the federal tax system, Social Security and education.

Although the president's agenda will dominate public and congressional debate this year, state legislators will have their own set of priorities. Their Top 10 include several on President Bush's short list, others that are congressional initiatives, and four that state legislators will place before the Congress and the president during the year. Let's start our look at the state-federal Top 10 with the four that legislators hope to advance.

1 BATTLING UNFUNDED MANDATES

In 1995, Congress passed the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act. State and local officials had campaigned for adoption of this legislation, which was intended to curtail the mandates put on states without the money to pay for them. For several years, the law appeared to work. Congress approved almost no new legislation that imposed unfunded mandates on state and local governments. Less than a decade later, though, they are back with a vengeance. A recent NCSL study indicates that state governments were handed $26 billion in cost shifts from the federal government in FY 2004. The estimate climbs to $31 billion for the current fiscal year.

The Government Accountability Office released an analysis last May explaining why the law does not capture all of the costs that the federal government passes along to state and local governments. The report points to various provisions that limit the definition of an "unfunded mandate" and exempt certain kinds of legislation from UMRA's purview, including the significant costs associated with the No Child Left Behind act.

Maryland Delegate John Hurson, NCSL president, notes that state legislators are preparing to advocate changes to UMRA that expand its definitions, reduce its exclusions and, therefore, capture more of the costs that otherwise would be shifted to state and local governments.

2 PROTECTING STATE AUTHORITY

Federal preemption of state authority is at least as corrosive to federalism as unfunded mandates. "The costs," says Illinois Senator Steve Rauschenberger, "are...