Unfunded mandate

In the United States, federal mandates are orders that induce 'responsibility, action, procedure or anything else that is imposed by constitutional, administrative, executive, or judicial action' for state and local governments and/or the private sector.An 'intergovernmental mandate' generally refers to the responsibilities or activities that one level of government imposes on another by legislative, executive or judicial action. According to the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA), an intergovernmental mandate can take various forms: Federal unfunded mandates can be traced back to the post-World War II years, when the federal government initiated national programs in education, mental health services, and environmental protection. The method for implementing these projects at the state and local level was to involve state and local governments. In the 1970s, the federal government utilized grants as a way to increase state and local participation, which resulted in federal assistance constituting over 25 percent of state and local budgets.Unfunded mandates are most commonly utilized in regulation of civil rights, anti-poverty programs and environmental protection programs.Critics argue that unfunded mandates are inefficient and are an unfair imposition of the national government on the smaller governments. While many scholars do not object to the goals of the mandates, the way they are enforced and written are criticized for their ineffectiveness. State and local governments do not always disagree with the spirit of the mandate, however, they often object to the high costs they must bear to carry out the objectives.The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) was approved by the 104th Congress on March 22, 1995, and became effective October 5, 1995, during the Clinton administration. It is public law 104-4. The official legislation summarizes the bill as being: 'An Act: To curb the practice of imposing unfunded Federal mandates on States and local governments; and to ensure that the Federal Government pays the costs incurred by those governments in complying with certain requirements under Federal statutes and regulations, and for other purposes.'The Act was written to amend UMRA by having the CBO compare the authorized level of funding in legislation to the costs of carrying out any changes. It was done by also amending the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. The bill was introduced by Republican North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx and passed by the House on February 4, 2015.