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CBO's Activities Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, 1996-2000 May 2001

This appendix summarizes the Congressional Budget Office's activities under title I of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act during 2000--its fifth year of providing information about federal mandates to the Congress. The information updates CBO's four previous annual reports on UMRA.⁽¹⁾

In all, CBO reviewed more than 700 bills and other legislative proposals in 2000 to determine whether they included federal mandates (see Table A-1). About 11 percent of those bills (or 77) had intergovernmental mandates, and less than 0.5 percent (three bills) had such mandates with costs that would exceed the threshold ($55 million a year in 2000 dollars). CBO also found private-sector mandates in about 12 percent of the bills and amendments that it examined; almost 1 percent (six bills) had costs over the $109 million annual threshold (in 2000 dollars) for such mandates. (Tables A-2 and A-3 list all of the bills examined by CBO in 2000 that contained mandates.)
 

No intergovernmental mandates, and only two private-sector mandates, with costs above the threshold were enacted into law in 2000. One of the private-sector mandates comprised the revenue-raising provisions in the Taxpayer Relief and Tax Extenders Act (P.L. 106-170). That law adjusts certain taxes to raise revenues in order to offset costs imposed by other provisions of the law. The second mandate alters the method by which minimum prices are set for fluid milk in various regions of the country. It was enacted in the Fiscal Year 2000 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 106-113).

In addition, CBO identified about 75 bills last year containing provisions that would have resulted in other costs to state, local, or tribal governments--costs that were not the result of mandates as defined by UMRA. As in previous years, most of those provisions dealt with conditions for receiving federal aid or participating in a voluntary federal program. In such cases, state, local, and tribal governments are subject to the conditions imposed by the federal government only if they choose to participate in the program or accept federal funds.

Bills with some of the most significant of those other costs involved the Medicaid program. For example, CBO reviewed a provision in H.R. 4577, the Medicare Outpatient Drug Act of 2000, that would establish a voluntary outpatient prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries (some of whose benefits are paid by Medicaid) beginning in 2003. CBO estimated that because states share the costs of Medicaid, state spending for that program would increase by about $1 billion over a five-year period. Such costs would result from additional administrative expenses, higher drug costs, and, in particular, higher enrollment rates among low-income beneficiaries.

Of the 410 public laws enacted in 2000, about 7 percent (30 laws) contained an intergovernmental mandate as UMRA defines it (see Table A-4). By CBO's estimate, none of those mandates will impose annual costs on state, local, or tribal governments that exceed the thresholds. Ten of the laws enacted in 2000 contained intergovernmental mandates that CBO had not reviewed at some point during the legislative process. In none of those cases, however, does CBO estimate that the costs of the mandates will be significant.
 

1. Congressional Budget Office, An Assessment of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act in 1999 (March 2000), An Assessment of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act in 1998 (February 1999), An Assessment of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act in 1997 (February 1998), and The Experience of the Congressional Budget Office During the First Year of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (January 1997).

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