The New federalism is a policy theme which became popular in the 1980s and 1990s in the United States that refers to the transfer of certain powers from the federal government to the states. It relies upon a Federalist tradition dating back to the founding of the country, as well as the Ninth Amendment and Tenth Amendment.

New federalism typically involves the Federal government providing block grants to the states to resolve a social issue. The Federal government then monitors outcomes but provides broad discretion to the states for how the programs are implemented. Advocates of this approach sometimes cite a quotation from a dissent by Louis Brandeis in New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann :

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

Advocates for this approach rely upon the fact that the framers of the constitution never intended a form of Federalism that empowered the federal government to dominate the governance and activities of the various states to the extant that this occurred as a consequence of New Deal legislation enacted during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. A primary objective of New Federalism was the restoration to the states of some of the autonomy and power lost to the federal government as a consequence of the New Deal.

Related legislation

• 1972 - State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act PL 92-512
• 1995 - Unfunded Mandate Reform Act PL 104-4
• 1996 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act PL 104-193