WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced legislation Monday – the Unfunded Mandates Accountability Act – to reduce excessive unfunded government mandates on job creators, giving them greater freedom to invest in their companies and hire new workers.

“At a time when too many Americans are still looking for work, Washington should be pursuing policies that make it easier to hire, not harder,” said Portman. “When the federal government imposes unnecessary and burdensome regulations it undermines employers’ ability to hire more workers, and makes it harder for Ohio workers to find jobs. This legislation will help employers create more jobs and compete globally rather than be held back by stifling government mandates.”

The new legislation would strengthen the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, which Portman authored in the 104th Congress. UMRA was a bipartisan effort to prevent Congress and federal regulators from blindly imposing major economic burdens on the private sector and on state, local and tribal governments without weighing the costs and benefits.

Among other measures, the legislation would require agencies to specifically assess the potential effects of new regulation on job creation or job loss; consider market-based and non-government alternatives to regulation; require agencies to choose the least burdensome regulatory option that achieves the policy goal set out by Congress; extend UMRA to independent agencies; and permit courts to review an agency’s economic impact analysis under UMRA.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is an original co-sponsor.