The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) made two important changes in the way information about the budgetary impact of federal mandates is provided to and used by the Congress: it increased the supply of information about such costs and signaled Congressional willingness to use that...

The federal budget process is a compilation of many rules and procedures, enacted primarily over the past century. Initially neutral as to budget outcome, that process, by the mid-1980s, had evolved to emphasize reducing the deficit. And the budget enforcement procedures put in place to control...