Letter Supporting Amendment in Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 373, the “Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2011”

The Honorable Darrell E. Issa
Chairman
Committee on Oversight and
     Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515

The Honorable Elijah Cummings
Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight and
     Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives 
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, supports the Amendment in Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 373, the “Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2011.”

The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) was designed to restrain the imposition of unfunded federal mandates on state, local, and tribal governments and the private sector, primarily by providing more information and focusing more attention on potential federal mandates in legislation and regulations. Before promulgating a final rule, UMRA requires agencies to undertake a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the anticipated costs and benefits of the Federal mandate.  For rules costing over $100 million, UMRA requires the agency to identify and consider a reasonable number of regulatory alternatives and select the least costly, most cost-effective or least burdensome alternative that achieves the objectives of the rule.  Alternatively, the head of the agency must publish with the final rule an explanation of why the least costly, most cost-effective or least burdensome method of achieving the rule’s objectives was not chosen.

In practice, however, agencies routinely engineer the regulatory process to avoid UMRA’s requirements.  The General Accountability Office has found that many statutes and final rules containing significant unfunded mandates were enacted or published without being identified as federal mandates at or above UMRA’s thresholds.  Worst of all, there is no mechanism to obtain meaningful judicial review for UMRA violations, so agencies can easily get away with skirting the law’s requirements.

The Amendment in Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 373 would fix many of these problems.  It would close loopholes that agencies use to circumvent UMRA, provide for enhanced stakeholder participation, and provide for meaningful UMRA oversight and judicial review.  The bill would also enhance the ability of Congress to identify unfunded mandates in legislation it considers.  The Chamber urges you to vote in favor of the Amendment in Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 373 and report this legislation to the full House as expeditiously as practicable.

Sincerely,

R. Bruce Josten

Cc: Members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Read the Letter: 

111611_AmendmentInNatureOfASubstitute_H R 373_UnfundedMandatesInformationAndTransparencyActof2011.pdf