Regulatory Accountability Act of 1996

Regulatory Accountability Act of 1996 - Amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 with regard to Federal mandates to make it out of order in the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any new or reauthorized measure (controlled private regulatory legislation) imposing costs on the private sector of $100 million or more (controlled Federal private sector mandate) unless it specifies a regulatory cost authorization for each such mandate of the dollar amount of private sector costs authorized to result from implementing or enforcing regulations. Requires the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the costs of mandate compliance for each measure reported by an authorization committee.

Prohibits the total amount of private sector compliance costs from exceeding the regulatory cost authorization for a covered law. Prohibits a proposed covered regulation from taking effect unless the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has certified in the Federal Register that its implementation will not violate the first prohibition. Exempts from such prohibitions any regulation which the President finds is necessary because of an emergency. Requires such estimates to be publicly available for each covered law.