Strengthening the Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Fate of Recent Federalism Legislation in the U.S. Congress

Although a number of measures have been proposed during the past decade to require the U. S. Congress to take more account of state and local interests, whether in regard to mandates, preemptions, regulations, or grants-in-aid, the only major success has been passage of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA). This article examines the fate of the dozen bills that progressed far enough to be the subject of a committee hearing or receive a vote in the House or Senate. Only a few of these measures, most of them rather modest in scope, were enacted, while the most significant measures were rejected, largely because state and local governments have experienced a number of difficulties in reproducing the conditions that were present for the passage of UMRA. Health, labor, and environmental groups were able to block a number of these bills. Business groups occasionally parted company with state and local governments and worked to defeat federalism legislation. Finally, state and local government groups have not always been united in support of these measures. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.