# Unfunded Mandate **Status: stub — expand.** A federal requirement imposed on state, local, or tribal governments without accompanying federal money to carry it out. A perennial grievance of governors and mayors of both parties. The **Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995** (UMRA) is the response, and it is procedural rather than substantive: it requires CBO cost estimates for mandates above an inflation-adjusted threshold and creates a point of order in each chamber, which can be waived. It does not prohibit anything. Its coverage gaps are large. UMRA exempts conditions of federal assistance — the mechanism that carries most federal-state policy — along with civil-rights enforcement, national-security provisions, and most independent-agency rules. Note the constitutional line: a true mandate on a state legislature would violate [[Anti-Commandeering Doctrine]]. Most "unfunded mandates" are therefore either grant conditions a state technically chose or regulations applying to states as ordinary market actors. ## See also - [[Cooperative Federalism]] · [[Spending Clause]] · [[Block Grant]] · [[Federalism Powers Crosswalk]]