ABSTRACT
Paul Posner, author of the first scholarly volume on unfunded mandates, concludes that “federalism is largely a secondary value, overshadowed and often overwhelmed by other, more primary goals.” Representative Gillmor’s was a spirited effort to remove the mandate millstone from ‘round the necks of wearied state and local government officials. He concluded, “Unfunded federal mandates are repugnant to our constitutional scheme, for they force state and local governments to be subservient to the federal government. These mandates’ boundless power to usurp state and local authority runs afoul of our notion of federalism, and their significant effects on state budgets and decision making power can prove disastrous.” Despite UMRA, despite greater awareness of the cost, in dollars and in constitutional soundness, of unfunded federal mandates, they show no real sign of abating. Yet the intermittent opposition to the most intrusive and expensive mandates, such as REAL ID and No Child Left Behind, suggest that there exists a constituency for federalism.
