Unfunded mandate

An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires any entity to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements. This can be imposed on state or local government, as well as private individuals or organizations. The key distinction is that the statute or regulation is not accompanied by funding to fulfill the requirement.[1]

An example in the United States, would be those federal mandates 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.[2]

As of 1992, 172 federal mandates obliged state or local governments to fund programs to some extent.[3] Beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the United States federal government has designed laws that require state and local government spending to promote national goals.[4] During the 1970s, the national government promoted education, mental health, and environmental programs by implementing grant projects at a state and local level; the grants were so common that the federal assistance for these programs made up over a quarter of state and local budgets.[5] The rise in federal mandates led to more mandate regulation.[5] During the Reagan Administration, Executive Order 12291 and the State and Local Cost Estimate Act of 1981 were passed, which implemented a careful examination of the true costs of federal unfunded mandates.[6][7] More reform for federal mandates came in 1995 with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA), which promoted a Congressional focus on the costs imposed onto intergovernmental entities and the private sector because of federal mandates.[8][9] Familiar examples of Federal Unfunded Mandates in the United States include the Americans with Disabilities Act and Medicaid.[3]

  1. ^ "Unfunded mandate". BusinessDictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  2. ^ Catherine H. Lovell, Max Neiman, Robert Kneisel, Adam Rose, and Charles Tobin (June 1979). Federal and State Mandating on Local Governments: Report to the National Science Foundation. Riverside, CA: University of California, p. 32
  3. ^ a b Dilger, Robert J., and Richard S. Beth. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act: History, Impact, and Issues. Publication no. 7-5700. Congressional Research Service, 2012. Print.<https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40957.pdf>
  4. ^ "America's Historical Documents". National Archives. 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  5. ^ a b Salamon, Lester M., and Michael S. Lund. Beyond Privatization: The Tools of Government Action. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1989.
  6. ^ Public law 97-108.
  7. ^ United States. Cong. House. House Committee on Rules. Statement. By Alice M. Rivlin. H. Doc. Congressional Budget Office, 1981. Print.
  8. ^ Anderson, Stacy, and Russell Constantine. Unfunded Mandates. Briefing Paper No. 7. Harvard Law School Federal Budget Policy Seminar, 3 May 2005. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. <http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/hjackson/UnfundedMandates_7.pdf>
  9. ^ United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Summary of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. Print.