As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on November 14, 2013
S. 1169 would withdraw roughly 19,000 acres of federal lands in Montana from programs to develop geothermal and mineral resources. The Army would manage the withdrawn lands and use them for military training purposes. Based on information provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant impact on the federal budget. Enacting S. 1169 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
Under current law, the affected lands are subject to a temporary right-of-way that allows the Army to use them for military training purposes. S. 1169 would prohibit certain activities that could generate receipts on the affected lands in the future (such receipts are accounted for in the budget as decreases in direct spending); however, because CBO expects that those lands would not generate any receipts over the next 10 years, we estimate that enacting the bill would not affect direct spending.
In addition, because the affected lands are already managed by the federal government, we estimate that implementing the legislation would not affect the costs of managing those lands. Finally, CBO estimates that any additional costs to prepare the legal description of the affected lands, as required under the bill, would total less than $5,000, subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
S. 1169 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
On June 11, 2013, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 1672, the Limestone Hills Training Area Withdrawal Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on May 15, 2013. The two bills are similar, and the CBO cost estimates are the same.
