[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 2 (Thursday, January 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E49]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          INTRODUCING THE UNFUNDED MANDATE REFORM ACT OF 1995

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                      HON. WILLIAM F. CLINGER, JR.

                            of pennsylvania

                          HON. THOMAS M. DAVIS

                              of virginia

                            HON. ROB PORTMAN

                                of ohio

                          HON. GARY A. CONDIT

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 4, 1995
  Mr. CLINGER. Mr. Speaker, today we are introducing legislation to 
help end the practice of Congress imposing crippling mandates on State 
and local governments without knowing the cost of such mandates or 
providing the funding to carry them out. For too long, Congress has 
imposed its own agenda on State and local governments without taking 
any responsibility for the costs. And the costs are staggering--in 
1993, unfunded Federal mandates cost States tens of billions of 
dollars, counties approximately $4.8 billion, and cities $6.5 billion. 
But cost is not the full story. Unfunded mandates force State and local 
governments to reduce vital services and/or increase taxes, revamp 
their budgets and reorder their priorities. This is not the kind of 
Federal-State-local government partnership the Founders envisioned. We 
need a new kind of federalism.
  Our bill, the ``Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995,'' requires 
authorizing legislation containing a mandate on State and local 
governments or on the private sector to include a Congressional Budget 
Office estimate of the costs of such mandate. Any mandate imposing 
annual aggregate costs of $50 million or more on State and local 
governments would be subject to a vote on the House floor and, unless a 
majority of Congress overrides a point of order, the mandate must be 
funded or those mandates will not become effective. Alternatively, an 
authorizing committee may reduce the programmatic or financial 
responsibilities of State and local governments consistent with the 
level of Federal funding that can be provided. Any mandate that does 
become effective in 1 year shall be repealed at the beginning of the 
first fiscal year for which funding has not been provided.
  This mandate relief legislation also requires each agency to assess 
the effects of Federal regulations on State and local government and 
the private sector and to minimize regulatory burdens imposed by such 
mandates. Federal agencies must prepare, under our legislation, 
statements describing, among other things, the costs and benefits of 
mandates to State and local governments and to the private sector. This 
is designed to make the regulatory process more sensible and 
accountable.
  Although the mechanisms in our legislation apply to prospective 
mandates, we have also created a commission to review all existing 
mandates for purposes of streamlining or eliminating those that no 
longer make sense. The Commission on Unfunded Federal Mandates will 
make recommendations to the Congress within 1 year of its formation.
  Currently, Members of Congress consider legislation containing 
unfunded mandates without any information on their cost to State and 
local governments and the private sector, without a separate debate in 
committee and on the House floor and without recorded votes on the 
issue. As a result, there is no honesty in the process, no 
accountability for this irresponsible practice. Our legislation will 
change all that. It will also establish a sensible and long-overdue 
rule that Congress shall not impose Federal mandates on State and local 
governments without providing adequate funding to comply with such 
mandates.


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