8 September 1998
Source: Excerpted from Senate Report 105-299

See full report: http://jya.com/sr105-299.txt
See S.389:  http://jya.com/s389rs.txt

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105th Congress                                                   Report
                                SENATE
 2d Session                                                     105-299
_______________________________________________________________________

                   MANDATES INFORMATION ACT OF 1998
                               __________

                              R E P O R T
                                 of the
                   COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE
                             together with
                             MINORITY VIEWS
                              to accompany
                                 S. 389
[Snip]

            TABLE 3.--REPORTED BILLS WITH PRIVATE-SECTOR MANDATES THAT EXCEED THE STATUTORY THRESHOLD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                         Were
                                                                                 Estimated annual      indirect
             Topic                     Mandate             Bill Number(s)       costs (billions of     effects
                                                                                     dollars)         considered
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Encryption....................  Allow decryption.....  H.R. 695.............  0.2 to 2.0...........  Yes.

[Snip]

    CBO noted that, particularly for private sector mandates,
estimates occasionally could not be made at all or made only on
crude assumptions because costs would be affected by specific
implementing rules developed after the proposed reform was
enacted. For instance, as CBO Deputy Director James Blum
explained to this Committee in June, because CBO could not
determine what technical and functional regulatory requirements
would be established for an encryption bill reported in the
House, its cost estimate ranged from $200 million to $2
billion. Similarly, CBO cited examples of its inability to
obtain reliable data in preparing its estimates because
information in some circumstances simply does not exist.

[Snip]

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[Congressional Record: June 3, 1998 (Digest)]
[Page D578]

MANDATES INFORMATION ACT
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Committee concluded hearings on S. 
389 and H.R. 3534, bills to improve congressional deliberation on 
proposed Federal private sector mandates, after receiving testimony 
from Senator Abraham; Representative Portman; James L. Blum, Deputy 
Director, Congressional Budget Office; Mary Ann Cricchio, Baltimore, 
Maryland, on behalf of the National Restaurant Association; and R. 
Bruce Josten, United States Chamber of Commerce, and Sharon Buccino, 
Natural Resources Defense Council, both of Washington, D.C.

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