Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Review of Unfunded Federal Mandates

Title II: Regulatory Accountability and Reform

Title III: Legislative Accountability and Reform

Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995 - Prohibits this Act from applying to any provision in a Federal statute or proposed or final Federal regulation that: (1) enforces constitutional rights of individuals; (2) establishes or enforces any statutory rights that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, or handicapped or disability status; (3) requires compliance with accounting and auditing procedures with respect to grants or other money or property provided by the Federal Government; (4) provides for emergency assistance or relief at the request of any State, local, or tribal government; (5) is necessary for national security or ratification or implementation of international treaty obligations; (6) is designated as emergency legislation; or (7) pertains to Social Security.

Title I: Review of Unfunded Federal Mandates - Directs the Commission on Unfunded Federal Mandates to investigate and review the role of unfunded Federal mandates in intergovernmental relations and their impact on State, local, tribal, and Federal government objectives and responsibilities. Requires the Commission to make recommendations to the President and the Congress with regard to: (1) allowing flexibility where the terms of compliance are unnecessarily rigid or complex; (2) consolidating or simplifying unfunded Federal mandates in order to facilitate compliance; (3) terminating those mandates which are duplicative, obsolete, or lacking in practical utility; and (4) temporarily suspending those mandates which are not vital to public health and safety and which compound the fiscal difficulties of State, local, and tribal governments.

(Sec. 107) Authorizes appropriations.

Title II: Regulatory Accountability and Reform - Requires each Federal agency, to the extent permitted under current law, to: (1) assess the effects of Federal regulations on States, local, and tribal governments, and the private sector (other than to the extent that such regulations incorporate requirements specifically set forth in legislation), including specifically the availability of resources to carry out any Federal mandates in those regulations; and (2) seek to minimize those burdens that uniquely or significantly affect such governmental entities or the private sector, consistent with achieving statutory and regulatory objectives.

(Sec. 201) Directs each agency to develop an effective process to permit elected officials and other representatives of States and local and tribal governments to provide meaningful and timely input in the development of regulatory proposals containing significant Federal intergovernmental mandates.

Requires each agency, before establishing regulatory requirements, to develop plans for: (1) notifying small governments of such requirements; (2) enabling their officials of to provide appropriate input into the regulatory process; and (3) preparing estimates of the effect of Federal private sector mandates on the national economy.

(Sec. 202) Requires each agency to prepare a written statement of specified estimates and analyses before promulgating any notice of proposed rulemaking or final rule including Federal mandates that may result in private or public sector expenditures of $100 million or more in any one year.

(Sec. 203) Directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to collect such statements and forward copies to the CBO Director.

(Sec. 204) Requires the OMB Director to establish pilot programs in at least two agencies to test innovative and more flexible regulatory approaches that: (1) reduce reporting and compliance burdens on small governments; and (2) meet overall statutory goals and objectives.

(Sec. 205) Requires the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to report annually to the Congress and the President on Federal court rulings in the preceding calendar year which imposed an enforceable duty on one or more State, local, or tribal governments.

Title III: Legislative Accountability and Reform - Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to add provisions on Federal mandates, with applicability limited in the same manner as indicated before title I.

(Sec. 301) Provides that when a congressional authorization committee orders a public bill or joint resolution reported, the committee shall promptly provide the text of the legislation to the CBO Director, identifying any Federal mandate in it.

Requires when such a committee reports legislation including any Federal mandate, that the accompanying report contain certain information, including statements on whether the legislation is intended to preempt any State, local, or tribal law (and the reasons for such intention), as well as individual mandate descriptions, cost-benefit analyses, and statements regarding Federal financial assistance to State, local, and tribal governments for meeting mandate costs.

Requires the CBO Director, for each piece of legislation, to prepare and submit to such committee certain statements estimating the direct costs of mandate compliance and the amount of new or increased Federal financial assistance needed to meet such costs, if the estimates indicate at least a $50 million per fiscal year direct cost of all intergovernmental mandates in the legislation, or a $100 million per fiscal year direct cost of private sector mandates.

Provides that, at the request of any congressional committee, the CBO Director shall: (1) consult with and assist it in analyzing the budgetary or financial impact of any proposed legislation that may have a significant impact on the State, local, or tribal government involved or on the private sector; and (2) study any legislative proposal containing a Federal mandate.

Requires the CBO Director to conduct continuing studies to enhance comparisons of budget outlays, credit authority, and tax expenditures.

Requires any congressional committee that anticipates considering proposed legislation establishing, amending, or reauthorizing any Federal program likely to have a significant budgetary impact on the State, local, or tribal government involved, or to have a significant financial impact on the private sector, to include that information in its views and estimates on that proposal to the applicable budget committee. Authorizes appropriations to carry out such new requirements under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Makes it out of order for the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider: (1) any reported nonappropriations legislation unless it has a CBO Director report; or (2) any reported nonappropriations legislation containing a Federal intergovernmental mandate with direct costs exceeding the thresholds specified by this Act, unless it provides for new or increased budget, entitlement, or direct spending authority or makes other specified arrangements for each fiscal year to ensure that Federal funds equal or exceed the estimated direct costs of the mandate, or that State, local, and tribal programmatic and financial responsibilities are reduced so they do not exceed the amount of Federal funding.

Requires the direct costs of a Federal mandate for a fiscal year to be determined based on estimates by congressional budget committees.

Gives the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of the House and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate final authority to determine whether a piece of legislation contains a Federal mandate.

Provides that it shall not be in order in the House of Representatives to consider a rule or order waiving application of these provisions to a bill or joint resolution reported by an authorization committee.

(Sec. 302) Amends House rules with regard to the Committee of the Whole and Committee on Rules: (1) to make it always in order in the former to strike from the portion of any bill open to amendment any Federal mandate whose direct costs exceed the prescribed threshold; and (2) to require the latter to include in its reports on waived points of order a separate item identifying all waivers of points or order relating to Federal mandates.

(Sec. 305) Repeals the State and Local Government Cost Estimate Act of 1981.