The United States Congress has placed an additional barrier to diversity jurisdiction, the amount in controversy requirement. This is a minimum amount of money which the parties must be contesting is owed to them. Since the enactment of the Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1996, 28 U.S.C. §1332(a) has provided that a claim for relief must exceed the sum or value of $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs and without considering counterclaims. In other words, the amount in controversy must be equal to or more than $75,000.01, and (in a case which has been removed from a state court to the federal court) a federal court must remand a case back to state court if the amount in controversy is exactly $75,000.00.