By now, we have all become quite familiar with the Mandates Information Act, which was reported by the Rules Committee last year and overwhelmingly approved by the House. It addresses a clear bias against the private sector in the way we consider legislation subject to the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, legislation that was also reported by the Rules Committee in 1995 and overwhelmingly approved by the House.

I want to congratulate Gary Condit and Rob Portman for again introducing this important legislation. I also want to commend them for their bipartisan efforts, and their diligence in working with the Rules Committee to ensure that the best possible bill will be reported by the Rules Committee. As you know, the committee will be meeting later this afternoon to mark up H.R. 350, with the goal of having it on the floor for consideration on Thursday.

Let me also thank Sherry Boehlert for accepting our invitation to be part of the first panel so that we can have an honest discussion about the objectives and provisions of H.R. 350.

I agree with the sponsors that the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act does not go far enough to discourage Congress from imposing costly mandates on the private sector. Such mandates cost businesses, consumers and workers about $700 billion annually, or $7,000 per household. That's more than one-third the size of the entire federal budget.

These mandates are particularly burdensome on families attempting to climb the economic latter. Over the next five years, three million people will move from welfare to private sector payrolls. Small businesses will provide most of those jobs, yet the imposition of new mandates upon existing burdens will reduce the resources available to create these much needed jobs.

It’s important to note that H.R. 350 does nothing to rollback some of those unnecessary mandates, nor does it prevent the enactment of additional mandates. But it will make Congress more accountable by requiring more deliberation and more information when Federal mandates are proposed.

I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. In particular, I want to express my appreciation to Jim Blum of the Congressional Budget Office for expediting his agency’s report on the effectiveness of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. That report contains important information that will be valuable for assessing the merits of H.R. 350. I look forward to reviewing the testimony of all of our witnesses, hopefully on my computer later today.