Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Legislative Accountability and Reform

Title II: Regulatory Accountability and Reform

Title III: Review of Unfunded Federal Mandates

Title IV: Judicial Review

Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995 - Prohibits the application of this Act to any proposed Federal legislation or proposed or final Federal regulation that: (1) enforces the constitutional rights of individuals; (2) establishes or enforces any statutory rights that prohibit various specified types of discrimination; (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 (small government); or (5) is designed as emergency legislation or is necessary for national security or international treaty purposes.

Requires each Federal agency to provide to the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) such information and assistance as the Director may reasonably request to assist him or her in carrying out this Act.

Title I: Legislative Accountability and Reform - Amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 with respect to unfunded Federal mandates.

(Sec. 101) Includes tribal governments and the private sector within the purview of mandate analysis by CBO and congressional committees.

Requires authorization committees to identify to CBO any Federal mandates in legislation ordered to be reported.

Requires the report accompanying any reported legislation with a Federal mandate to contain 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 the authorizing 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 $200 million per fiscal year direct cost of private sector mandates.

Makes it out of order for 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.

Gives the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs final authority to determine questions on the applicability of this Act to pending bills, joint resolutions, amendments, motions, or conference reports.

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

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. 102) 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 of order relating to Federal mandates.

(Sec. 103) 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 any legislative proposal establishing, amending, or reauthorizing any Federal program likely to have a significant impact on any State, local, or tribal government or on the private sector to include its views and estimates on that proposal to the applicable budget committee.

(Sec. 104) Authorizes appropriations to CBO to carry out this Act.

(Sec. 106) Repeals the State and Local Government Cost Estimate Act of 1981.

Title II: Regulatory Accountability and Reform - Requires each Federal agency to: (1) assess the effects of Federal regulations on State, local, and tribal governments (other than to the extent that such regulations incorporate requirements specifically set forth in legislation) and the private sector, 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, consistent with achieving statutory and regulatory objectives.

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

Requires each agency: (1) before establishing regulatory requirements, to develop plans for notifying small governments of such requirements; and (2) before promulgating any final rule that includes any Federal intergovernmental mandate that may result in State, local, or tribal government and private sector expenditures, in the aggregate, of $100 million or more in any one year, to prepare a written statement of specified estimates and analyses for forwarding to the CBO Director.

Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 204) Directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish pilot programs in at least two agencies to test innovative approaches to reducing reporting and compliance burdens on small governments.

Title III: Review of Unfunded Federal Mandates - Establishes the Commission on Unfunded Federal Mandates to investigate and review the role of unfunded Federal mandates in intergovernmental relations and their impact on local, State, and Federal government objectives and responsibilities.

Requires the Commission to make recommendations to the President and the Congress with regard to: (1) consolidating or simplifying unfunded Federal mandates in order to facilitate compliance by State, local, and tribal governments, especially with respect to specific mandates for which the terms of compliance are unnecessarily rigid or complex; (2) terminating unfunded mandates which are duplicative, obsolete, or lacking in practical utility; and (3) temporarily suspending those unfunded mandates which are not vital to public health and safety and which compound the fiscal difficulties of State, local, and tribal governments.

(Sec. 307) Authorizes appropriations.

Title IV: Judicial Review - Disallows judicial review under this Act.