CBO Testimony: Statement of Dan L. Crippen, Director CBO's Activities Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act Before the Subcommittee on Technology and the House Committee on Rules and the Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs Committee on Government Reform, US House of Respresentatives

Abstract

This statement discusses the activities of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). CBO's report on UMRA's first five years is being released at this hearing, and this statement this morning will summarize that report's major conclusions. The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act was designed to focus more attention on the costs of mandates that the federal government imposes on other levels of government and the private sector. UMRA's supporters had many goals for the legislation, including ensuring that the Congress had information about the costs of mandates before it decided whether to impose them, and encouraging the federal government to provide funding to cover the costs of intergovernmental mandates. To accomplish those goals, title I of UMRA established requirements for reporting on federal mandates and set up new legislative procedures. Under the law, the House and Senate are prohibited from considering legislation that contains mandates unless certain conditions are met. For example, consideration of a reported bill is not in order unless the committee reporting the bill has published a CBO statement about the costs of any private-sector or intergovernmental mandates in the bill. In addition, Members of Congress may raise a point of order against legislation that would create an intergovernmental mandate over the cost threshold specified in UMRA, unless the legislation provides funding to cover those costs. Such procedural requirements do not stop the Congress from passing bills it wants to pass, but they can raise the stakes in deliberating unfunded mandates.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 24, 2001
Accession Number
ADA399781

Entities

People

  • Dan L. Crippen

Organizations

  • Congressional Budget Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Congress
  • Cost Estimates
  • Costs
  • Food Stamps
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • Law
  • Local Governments
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Natural Resources
  • Regulations
  • Security
  • Social Security
  • Standards
  • Unfunded Mandates
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting