A resolution would honor the 10th Amendment.

Rep. George Cleveland, an Onslow County Republican, filed the House resolution out of frustration at what he views as the federal government's usurpation of the state's powers.

In particular, Cleveland said he's frustrated by federal funding, such as the recent stimulus package, that comes with "strings attached" — in other words, clauses that direct how the state must spend the money.

He said he would prefer the state reject the federal help, but at the least he thinks it should object to the practice in principle.

"It's time for the states to start telling the federal government that they don't run us," he said. "We run our own states." 

The resolution says that the constitution created the federal government to be "an agent of the states," but today the states are "demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government."

It supports the state's "right to claim sovereignty" under the 10th Amendment.