Reference: New Online Database From Congressional Budget Office

From the CBO:

CBO is pleased to announce the launch of an online search tool for intergovernmental and private-sector mandates that the agency has identified in bills and public laws. Users can now search for mandates by entering keywords and selecting filters such as budget functions and costs relative to the statutory thresholds. Data are currently available for calendar years 2013–2015, and new data will be added periodically throughout the year. In addition to the new search, CBO’s website also features background information about the agency’s work under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and historical data about mandates identified in bills and public laws.
This online tool will replace CBO’s annual report reviewing the agency’s activities under UMRA that CBO has published for nearly 20 years. The aim of the new search tool is to enhance users’ experience by making information on mandates easier to access, searchable, and more timely than had previously been the case for the annual, printed reports.

With this launch comes the new data summarizing CBO’s activities under UMRA in calendar year 2015. CBO identified ten laws enacted in 2015 that contain intergovernmental mandates and 17 that contain private-sector mandates. None of those laws contain intergovernmental mandates estimated to have annual costs in excess of the threshold established in UMRA ($77 million in 2015, as adjusted for inflation). By contrast, six public laws enacted in 2015 contain eight mandates estimated to have annual costs that will exceed the private-sector threshold established in UMRA ($154 million in 2015, as adjusted for inflation). Of the 580 bills that CBO analyzed in 2015, 57 contained intergovernmental mandates and 82 contained private-sector mandates.

Direct to New Database

Filed under: Data Files, News, Patrons and Users, Reports