Joint Hearing of the Rules Subcommittee on Technology and the House and
the Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs
Hearing on "Unfunded Mandates - A Five-Year Review and Recommendations for Change."
Chairman, Committee on Rules
First, let me congratulate both Chairmen for the tremendous job they have done in putting this joint hearing together. I also want to welcome OMB Director Daniels, CBO Director Crippen and the rest of our distinguished panelists for participating in this Joint Committee Hearing.
Let me start by congratulating Director Crippen and his entire Congressional Budget Office staff for the outstanding work they are doing with this important issue and for timing the release of the five year review of the Unfunded Mandates Act at this Joint Hearing. I look forward to using it not only to reexamine the original Act to see what has worked and what needs improvement, but to also gauge whether the expansion of the UMRA point of order into the private sector is warranted.
From my perspective UMRA has worked quite well. Back in 1995 when we were drafting this bill, I was a little hesitant about creating the two points of order contained in the Act, even if it was to ensure information and accountability. I was even more concerned about the second one which was precedent setting in that it could be raised against a rule if the Rules Committee waived the first UMRA point of order. At the time, it seemed like we were entering a dangerous new world for the House because with this bill we were essentially preventing the Rules Committee from waiving rules of the House, thus limiting the ability of the majority leadership to control the agenda.
Both the demand for and the supply of information on the costs of federal mandates has increased dramatically since the Act took effect. Committee staffs and individual Members are increasingly aware of whether proposed legislation would create any new federal mandates, and if so, whether their costs would exceed the thresholds set by UMRA. The CBO has provided a yeoman service that hasn't just ended when it has identified mandates but continues by working with the sponsors of the identified mandate to provide informal guidance on how the proposal might be restructured to either eliminate the mandate or reduce its costs.
In short, the impact of the Unfunded Mandates Act has been to increase the consciousness of the costs of intergovernmental mandates and foster greater collaboration between committees and CBO on how to mitigate those costs. Today, five years later, we have all become quite accustomed to operating within the bounds of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. I want to congratulate Representatives Rob Portman and Gary Condit for their leadership on the issue and to commend them for their bipartisan efforts, and their diligence in working with the Rules Committee and others to ensure that the proper implementation of the Act has been achieved.
At the same time 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 ladder and small businesses which create most of the jobs for the American economy. The imposition of new mandates upon already existing burdens reduces the resources available to create these much needed jobs.
To address this issue, Congressmen Condit and Portman have joined forces again with the introduction of H.R. 54, the Mandates Information Act of 2001. It's important to note that H.R. 54 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.
Again, I want to thank our witnesses for being here today and I look forward to their testimony.
