Unfunded Mandates

An unfunded mandate is one that is imposed on state and local governments by the federal government without giving them any funding whatsoever. Unfunded mandates are a problem because states are forced to comply to them, but they take out a large chunk of the states' budgets. An example of an unfunded mandate is the No Child Left Behind Act, which sought to improve student performances on standardized tests and threatened to punish schools that do not improve. Although George Bush had promised that it would be funded for, there was a huge gap between the signing of the bill and the actual time it took for the funding to arrive. This problem led to the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act which was named under the Contract with America. The UMRA said that an unfunded mandate valued at over $50 million can be stopped by the House of Representatives. This forced Congress to have to accept responsibility for the mandates. I feel that a better strategy would be to create some sort of commision that was focused solely on reviewing unfunded mandates to determine whether they are economically feasable. Also, raising taxes could provide the money the states need.