II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1188

To provide that Federal regulatory mandates shall not be enforced unless

the cost to the States of implementing them are funded by the Federal

Government.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JUNE 30, 1993

Mr. COVERDELL (for himself, Mr. FAIRCLOTH, Mr. KEMPTHORNE, and Mr.

GREGG) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To provide that Federal regulatory mandates shall not be

enforced unless the cost to the States of implementing

them are funded by the Federal Government.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Mandate Re5 lief Act of 1993’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) Federal regulation of State and local gov2 ernments has become increasingly extensive and in3 trusive in recent years;

4 (2) such regulation has, in many instances—

5 (A) adversely affected the ability of State

6 and local governments to achieve their inde7 pendent responsibilities and meet their estab8 lished priorities; and

9 (B) forced State and local governments to

10 use existing revenue sources and to generate

11 new property tax revenues to enable them to

12 adhere to Federal mandates; and

13 (3) the resulting excessive fiscal burdens on

14 State and local governments also undermine the gov15 ernments’ ability to attain the goals of Federal regu16 lations.

17 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this title to estab18 lish procedures to ensure that the Federal Government

19 pays the total amount of additional costs incurred by State

20 and local governments in complying with intergovern21 mental regulations that take effect on or after the date

22 of enactment of this Act.

23 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

24 For purposes of this Act—
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1 (1) the term ‘‘additional costs’’ means the

2 amount of costs incurred by a State or local govern3 ment solely in complying with an intergovernmental

4 regulation promulgated pursuant to a significant

5 Federal statute concerning a particular activity that

6 is in excess of the amount that the State or local

7 government would incur in carrying out that activity

8 in the absence of the regulation, but does not in9 clude any amount that a State or local government

10 is required or permitted by law to contribute as a

11 non-Federal share under a Federal assistance pro12 gram;

13 (2) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of

14 the Office of Management and Budget;

15 (3) the term ‘‘Federal agency’’ means a depart16 ment, agency, or instrumentality in the executive

17 branch of the United States Government, but does

18 not include a mixed-ownership Government corpora19 tion;

20 (4) the term ‘‘Federal assistance’’ means assist21 ance provided by a Federal agency to a State or

22 local government or other public or private recipient

23 in the form of a grant, loan, loan guarantee, prop24 erty, cooperative agreement, or technical assistance,

25 but does not include direct cash assistance to a nat-
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1 ural person, a contract for the procurement of goods

2 or services for the United States, or insurance;

3 (5) the term ‘‘intergovernmental regulation’’

4 means a statute, or a regulation promulgated by a

5 Federal agency pursuant to a significant statute,

6 that—

7 (A) requires a State or local government

8 to—

9 (i) take certain actions; or

10 (ii) comply with certain conditions;

11 and

12 (B) takes effect on or after the date of en13 actment of this Act;

14 (6) the term ‘‘local government’’ means—

15 (A) a county, city, town, village, or other

16 general purpose political subdivision of a State;

17 (B) a school district; and

18 (C) a unit of local government established

19 under State law for a particular public purpose;

20 (7) the term ‘‘State’’ means each of the States,

21 the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth

22 of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern

23 Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, American

24 Samoa, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific

25 Islands.
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1 SEC. 4. COMPENSATION OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERN2 MENTS FOR ADDITIONAL COSTS.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—An intergovernmental regulation

4 may not be enforced against a State or local government

5 with respect to a fiscal year—

6 (1) unless there has been made an appropria7 tion of Federal funds, and such funds have been

8 made available, to all State and local governments

9 for the fiscal year in an amount that is sufficient to

10 reimburse all State or local governments for the

11 total amount of additional costs that will be incurred

12 by those governments in complying with the regula13 tion during the fiscal year; or

14 (2) Congress approves by a two-thirds vote of

15 the members of each House of Congress, duly cho16 sen and sworn, a joint resolution that waives sub17 section (a) with respect to that intergovernmental

18 regulation and that fiscal year.

19 (b) DETERMINATION OF ADDITIONAL COSTS.—For

20 the purposes of subsection (a), the total amount of addi21 tional costs that will be incurred by State governments

22 and local governments in complying with an intergovern23 mental regulation during a fiscal year shall be the total

24 amount of such costs for compliance with the regulation

25 estimated by the Director for the fiscal year in the report

26 required under section 5 for the fiscal year.
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1 SEC. 5. REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR.

2 For each fiscal year in which an intergovernmental

3 regulation will be in effect, the Director, in consultation

4 with representatives of State and local governments, shall

5 prepare and submit to the President and the Congress,

6 with the President’s budget in January preceding the be7 ginning of a fiscal year, a report that contains an estimate,

8 for that fiscal year and the following fiscal year, of the

9 total amount of additional costs that have been incurred

10 or will be incurred by each State government and by each

11 local government within each State in complying with the

12 intergovernmental regulation.

13 SEC. 6. PAYMENT OF REIMBURSEMENTS.

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—The head of a Federal agency

15 that administers an intergovernmental regulation shall

16 pay to each State and local government in each fiscal year

17 the amount determined pursuant to this section to reim18 burse the State and local governments in the State for

19 the additional costs incurred by those governments in com20 plying with the intergovernmental regulation during the

21 fiscal year.

22 (b) AMOUNT PAID BY A FEDERAL AGENCY TO A

23 STATE OR LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The amount to be paid

24 to a State or local government under subsection (a) for

25 a fiscal year shall be the amount of additional costs speci-
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1 fied for that State or local government in the report sub2 mitted pursuant to section 5.

3 (c) INAPPLICABILITY OF SECTION.—This section

4 does not apply with respect to an intergovernmental regu5 lation that will be in effect during a fiscal year if, with

6 respect to that intergovernmental regulation and that fis7 cal year, a joint resolution described in section 4(a)(2) is

8 in effect.

9 SEC. 7. EFFECT OF SUBSEQUENT ENACTMENTS.

10 No statute enacted after the date of enactment of this

11 Act shall supersede this Act unless the statute does so in

12 specific terms, referring to this Act, and declares that that

13 statute supersedes this Act.

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