Federal Mandates for State Action Note Federal mandates are traditionally described as actions by the federal government to force states to do something or pre-empt state authority. The national 55 mph speed limit is a classic example of an unfunded mandate, while a congressionally legislated moratorium or preventing states from taxing Internet commerce would be an example of preemption. Mandates and preemption can come from any branch of the federal government, and arise in the form of laws, regulations, and court rulings. Suggested State Legislation volumes have highlighted congressional mandates since 1992, beginning with legislation in the 101st Congress. Defining congressional mandates was supposedly made easier by the “Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA).” Under UMRA, federal legislation that imposes $50 million or more in unfunded annual costs to the states is officially considered a mandate. This threshold has since been raised to $56 million to adjust for inflation. UMRA also defines a private sector mandate and requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to review virtually all bills reported by congressional committees for the presence of federal mandates and to estimate the costs of both types. Federal Mandates – Recent History According to the CBO’s “Activities Under the Unfunded Mandate Report 1996-2000,” although the percentage of legislative bills containing federal mandates has remained consistent over the last five years, the percentage of bills with mandates over the statutory threshold has declined from 1.5 percent in 1996 to 0.5 percent in 2000. Since 1996, Congress has enacted only two intergovernmental mandates that surpass the UMRA threshold, the law increasing the minimum wage in 1996 and the Food Stamp program in 1997. In addition, out of the 3,000 bills evaluated through mandate statements by CBO in that report, only twelve percent contained intergovernmental mandates and just fourteen percent contained private sector mandates. Finally, only nine percent (32 bills) of the intergovernmental bills reviewed by CBO reached UMRA’s $50 million threshold. 107th Congress-First Session The first session of the 107th Congress began on January 3, 2000 and was expected to conclude before the Christmas holiday of 2001. At the time this note was written, 70 bills had been enacted into law. Because the CBO’s final report on mandates from this session was not available at the time this note was written, this note simply highlights a few key bills from the session that could affect the states and provides CBO cost estimates for some of those items. “Aviation Security Act” (S. 1447) S. 1447 authorizes increased federal responsibility for all aspects of aviation security, including the federal take-over of all passenger and baggage screening in the nation’s airports and the placement of federal marshals on commercial flights. It authorizes the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation to hire 31,000 employees to provide day-to-day aviation security and requires the Department of Transportation to reimburse airports for some of the costs associated with complying with this new law. It requires local airport operators to use technology and equipment to detect biological and chemical weapons, requires airport operators to develop security awareness programs for airport employees and perform background checks for certain airport employees with access to “secure areas.” Initial CBO estimates predict that the cost the to public sector from S. 1447 will not meet the $56 UMRA threshold, but it predicts the costs to the private sector could exceed the $113 million UMRA threshold. On a different note, S. 1447 pre-empts state laws by exempting volunteers who provide emergency services on commercial flights from liability in an action brought in a state court. This bill became law in
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