Cite as: 528 U. S. 62 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
ida Prepaid, 527 U. S., at 640-647; City of Boerne, 521 U. S., at 530-531. "The appropriateness of remedial measures must be considered in light of the evil presented. Strong measures appropriate to address one harm may be an unwar-ranted response to another, lesser one." Id., at 530 (citing South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 308 (1966)).
Our examination of the ADEA's legislative record confirms that Congress' 1974 extension of the Act to the States was an unwarranted response to a perhaps inconsequential problem. Congress never identified any pattern of age discrimination by the States, much less any discrimination whatsoever that rose to the level of constitutional violation. The evidence compiled by petitioners to demonstrate such attention by Congress to age discrimination by the States falls well short of the mark. That evidence consists almost entirely of isolated sentences clipped from floor debates and legislative reports. See, e. g., S. Rep. No. 93-846, p. 112 (1974); S. Rep. No. 93-690, p. 56 (1974); H. R. Rep. No. 93- 913, pp. 40-41 (1974); S. Rep. No. 93-300, p. 57 (1973); Senate Special Committee on Aging, Improving the Age Discrimination Law, 93d Cong., 1st Sess., 14 (Comm. Print 1973); 113 Cong. Rec. 34742 (1967) (remarks of Rep. Steiger); id., at 34749 (remarks of Rep. Donohue); 110 Cong. Rec. 13490 (1964) (remarks of Sen. Smathers); id., at 9912 (remarks of Sen. Sparkman); id., at 2596 (remarks of Rep. Beckworth). The statements of Senator Bentsen on the floor of the Senate are indicative of the strength of the evidence relied on by petitioners. See, e. g., 118 Cong. Rec. 24397 (1972) (stating that "there is ample evidence that age discrimination is broadly practiced in government employment," but relying on newspaper articles about federal employees); id., at 7745 ("Letters from my own State have revealed that State and local governments have also been guilty of discrimination toward older employees"); ibid. ("[T]here are strong indications that the hiring and firing practices of governmental units discriminate against the elderly . . .").
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