Federal Mandates Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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A federal mandate, or direct order, in the United States is a federal regulation that must be complied with by a subnational government under the threat of a criminal or civil sanction. There are myriad arrays of federal mandates involving a broad range of state and local functions and programs. An excellent and prominent example of a federal mandate in the United States is the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972, forbidding employee job discrimination by state and local governments on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Additional prominent federal mandates involve the environment (air and water quality), homeland security, fair housing, fair labor standards, occupational safety, drug and alcohol testing, and endangered species.

Prior to the 1960s, there were relatively few federal mandates imposed on state and local governments. The proliferation of federal mandates began in the mid-1960s and continued with even greater force in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, substantially due to the belief of the U.S. Congress that the imposition of federal mandates on state and local governments was an efficient and economical mechanism for promoting uniform national minimum policy standards. In an aggregate sense, this development marked the shift from a somewhat voluntaristic national-state-local intergovernmental relationship to one of a more coercive federal nature.

A number of developments in the United States accounted for the proliferation of federal mandates during the last half of the twentieth century. First, the general failure of the states to alleviate critical environmental problems, such as air and water pollution, generated support for national action and federal mandates. Second, members of Congress became convinced that conditional grants-in-aid to the states and local governments had failed to solve national problems. Federal mandates, and other forms of federal regulation, were viewed by Congress members as the only feasible alternative approach for alleviating these problems. Third, national public interest groups, particularly those concerned with environmental problems, supported and strongly lobbied Congress for corrective federal mandates. In addition, influential business interests often preferred that their operations be regulated by a single mandated federal standard rather than a variety of state regulatory policies. Fifth, state and local officials, in some instances, such as with regard to the licensing of interstate motor carriers, viewed with favor the imposition of a federal mandate. And finally, members of Congress, often for reasons of political expediency and visibility, championed the passage of a federal mandate to achieve a desirable and popular social goal.

The imposition of federal mandates on the state and local governments has been criticized on various grounds and has generated a fair amount of political controversy. First, and most critically, state and local officials have viewed with considerable dismay the federal government’s practice of imposing mandates on subnational governments without any compensatory or adequate funding. Second, federal mandates have often proved to be inflexible, prescribing rigid policies and performance standards regardless of varying circumstances. Third, federal mandates in some instances have been found to be counterproductive, such as the federal mandate that requires state and local governments to issue documents in both English and Spanish, increasing their operational costs, even in those instances in which there is largely an absence of Latinos. In addition, on occasion federal mandates have proved to be inconsistent, with state and local officials confronted with conflicting goals, standards, procedures, and timetables. And finally, the continuing proliferation of federal mandates has served to render the operation of government more confusing and incomprehensible to the citizenry, undermining the concept of democratic accountability.

Partly in response to the various criticisms of federal mandates, Congress passed in 1995 the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, which requires that Congress define the costs and consequences of any proposed new federal mandate. The passage of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act has not reduced the number of federal mandates but has rendered new federal mandates less extensive and more narrowly written.

As a result of the proliferation of federal mandates and the consequent enhancement of the regulatory role of the federal government in the intergovernmental system, the American polity has transitioned from cooperative Federalism to an era of coercive Federalism. Given the continuing and increasing range of domestic and foreign policy challenges confronting the United States and often the need for a national response to these challenges, we can well expect the federal government to promulgate additional mandates and other forms of policy regulations.

Bibliography:

Berman, David R. Local Government and the States: Autonomy, Politics, and Policy. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1981.
Conlan,Timothy J., and David R. Beam. “Federal Mandates:The Record of Reform and Future Prospects.” Intergovernmental Perspective 18 (Fall 1992): 7–11, 15.
Kettl, Donald F. The Regulation of American Federalism. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983.
Kincaid, John. “From Cooperative to Coercive Federalism.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 509 (May 1990): 139–152.
Posner, Paul L. The Politics of Unfunded Mandates: Whither Federalism? Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998.
Zimmerman, Joseph F. “Regulating Intergovernmental Relations in the 1990s.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 509 (May 1990): 48–59.