CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE - H.R. 2016

March 18, 2008

National Landscape Conservation System Act

As ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on March 12, 2008 H.R. 2016 would provide a statutory basis for the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), which was established administratively in 2000.  The NLCS encompasses about 20 million acres of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Based on information provided by that agency, CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2016 would have no effect on the BLM budget (which currently includes about $50 million a year for the NLCS) because BLM already has permanent authority to manage the lands in the system, subject to amounts provided annually in appropriations acts.  Enacting H.R. 2016 would not affect direct spending or revenues.

The bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.

On June 6, 2007, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 1139, the National Landscape Conservation System Act, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on May 23, 2007.  S. 1139 and H.R. 2016 are similar, and the CBO cost estimates for the two pieces of legislation are the same.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Deborah Reis. 

The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant for Budget Analysis.