 The people out there made it clear they strongly support the American Rescue Plan. This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation working people, middle-class folks, people who built the country a fighting chance. The American Rescue Plan Act provided $19.5 billion in federal aid to municipalities with a population of less than 50,000 people. Brady, which has a population of about 5,500, is known as the heart of Texas because it's smack in the middle of the state. The federal government offered it $1.3 million, but the city council voted to turn down the money because there were strings attached. Obviously, we could have used the money, but at what cost? It stated that recipients shall comply with all federal statutes, regulations, and executive orders. Sheila Hemphill is a lobbyist and the founder of the Citizens Advocacy Group, Texas Right to Know. We live where we live because we like knowing who our neighbors are. We like helping our neighbors. We like having the ability to influence the laws in which we're under at a local level. It's not worth being subservient to executive orders, especially when they're unknown. Brady was one of at least 243 small towns across the country to reject or return the federal stimulus aid. Residents were concerned about a clause in the contract giving the federal government the right to audit how the funds were used. They were also worried that the money would allow the Biden administration to force the town to comply with its vaccine mandate. An executive order issued in September of last year mandated that all companies with more than 100 employees require all of their workers to be vaccinated. Though it was later struck down by the Supreme Court, the order wouldn't have had much of an impact on Brady, since its school district is the only entity in town large enough to be affected. But for the people here, it was about the principle of the matter in asserting their local sovereignty. Today, it's about the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but the big problem is it's an executive order that could be who knows what because that comes with the stroke of a pen. And once Sheila contacted me, yes, the red light went off. Sue Pledger is an attorney and city commissioner in the neighboring community of Mason, population 2400. She let the charge to reject $570,000 in stimulus funding. The federal government has no right to come in and audit us, has no right to our financial records. We haven't entered a contract with them, we're separate. And that's the way we want to keep it here in Mason. The contract Brady and Mason would have had to sign to receive the American Rescue Plan Act funding is typical of how Washington uses federal aid to influence state and local policy. Bribery is a very good term for what the federal government is doing. The only way that you can avoid the consequences of being bribed is to not take the bribe. Mike Mahary is the National Communications Director at the 10th Amendment Center, a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to advancing political decentralization. Based on long-standing Supreme Court precedent, the federal government cannot force a state or a locality to enforce the federal law or implement a federal program. It's called the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine. It's one of the last vestiges of true federalism we have in the American system. As part of the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, the federal government cannot use funding to coerce states into doing their will. So in other words, if Brady Texas decides we're not going to enforce a vaccine mandate, the federal government can't come in and take their highway funds. Courts won't allow that. But the federal government could come in and say, any money that we've given you that is related to coronavirus policy, as a condition of that, you have to enforce these various mandates and regulations, you're not doing that, we can take the money back. Nationwide, the share of each state's total revenue contributed by the federal government ranges from nearly half to a quarter. And that money generally comes with conditions. There's billions and billions of dollars that's funneled from the federal government into local police departments, both in terms of actual cash and then equipment through militarization programs. Police departments love this stuff because hey, we get to be big time and we get to have a tank. And in return, the federal government gets the local law enforcement agents to be part of their war on drugs. Education is rife with federal money. We now have a national education system where minute policy matters and academic standards are dictated from the federal government. One size fits all for a country of over 325 million people. It really doesn't make any sense, but with federal funding, it all becomes standardized. It's very important for entities to realize the magnitude of transfer of sovereignty entering into these contracts represent. So do not enter into a contract or accept money that would infringe upon our liberties. In a lot of cases, you don't know specifically what those strings are going to be because the federal government writes these contracts or agreements in such a way as to give the federal government a great deal of latitude to kind of retroactively fit in what kind of policies they want in place. Brady and Mason City Councils rejected the federal stimulus money by unanimous vote. We had very strong support in a very short time that we had made the right choice based on what representing the citizens in this community meant. It meant giving back the funds, staying sovereign, keeping our independence, not giving the federal government a foot in our finances or over what we do with our contracts. I'm not somebody who's all for decentralization because I think state and local governments are somehow better. They're just as bad as the federal government. But as with any system, a decentralized system is going to be better for the individual than a monopoly system. I'd rather deal with 50 different states than have everything one size fits all emanating from the federal government.