Last year CBO launched an online tool that allows users to search for intergovernmental and private-sector mandates that the agency has identified in bills and public laws. Data for calendar year 2016 are now available.
CBO identified 17 laws enacted in 2016 that contain intergovernmental mandates and 24 that contain private-sector mandates. A total of three intergovernmental mandates in two of those laws are estimated to have annual costs that will exceed the threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). That threshold, which is adjusted annually for inflation, was $77 million in 2016. Only one of the private-sector mandates is estimated to have annual costs that will exceed the UMRA threshold for such mandates—$154 million in 2016.
CBO also analyzed nearly 650 bills to identify intergovernmental and private-sector mandates in 2016. Of those bills, 53 contained intergovernmental mandates, four of which were estimated to have annual costs that would exceed the UMRA threshold, and 80 contained private-sector mandates, seven of which were estimated to have annual costs that would exceed the threshold.
Patrice Gordon and Leo Lex are unit chiefs in CBO's Budget Analysis Division.