The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its annual report summarizing CBO’s review activities in 2012 under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). Under UMRA, CBO is required at certain points during the legislative process to examine the cost of mandates under proposed legislation that would be borne by state, local and tribal governments or by the private sector. If unfunded mandates are identified in a piece of legislation, CBO must then determine whether the aggregate direct costs of those mandates exceed statutory thresholds as defined in UMRA - $73 million for intergovernmental mandates and $146 million for private sector mandates. CBO reviewed 428 proposed bills in 2012, of which 68 (16 percent) contained intergovernmental mandates and 80 (19 percent) contained private sector mandates. Most of the bills with identified mandates did not reach the statutory threshold. Only two bills contained intergovernmental mandates with aggregate direct costs above $73 million, and 14 bills contained private sector mandates that imposed costs greater than $146 million. CBO also reviewed 202 public laws passed by Congress in 2012 and signed into law by the President. Among those laws, 16 (8 percent) contain 44 intergovernmental mandates, none of which were determined to exceed the threshold but one of which has a cost unable to be determined by CBO. Meanwhile, 23 enacted laws (11 percent) contain a total of 75 private sector mandates, 12 of which were determined to exceed the threshold and 16 of which have costs unable to be determined. Among the laws passed in 2012 with intergovernmental mandates are the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act (MAP-21); Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act of 2011; and FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. See report for the full list.

Link(s): CBO Report