As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on December 19, 2013
S. 974 would establish a new national monument in southern Nevada. The bill also would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to convey certain federal lands to nonfederal entities. Finally, the bill would modify the way certain parcels of federal land are managed.
Based on information provided by the affected agencies, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would cost $10 million over the 2015-2019 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. Because enacting S. 974 would reduce offsetting receipts, which are treated as reductions in direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply; however, CBO estimates that the net impact on such receipts would be negligible. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
S. 974 would establish the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument from about 23,000 acres of federal land currently managed by BLM. The bill would transfer administrative jurisdiction over the land to the National Park Service (NPS). Based on information provided by NPS, CBO estimates that operating the monument would cost about $2 million annually.
The bill also would direct BLM to convey several parcels of federal land in Nevada to various public entities at no cost. CBO expects that, under current law, some of those parcels, which total less than 6,000 acres, would be conveyed under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, which allows BLM to convey lands to public entities for $10 per acre. Therefore, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would reduce offsetting receipts; however, we estimate that the amount of lost receipts would total less than $60,000.
Finally, the bill would change the way certain BLM lands are managed by expanding a national conservation area, establishing a new recreation area, and transferring BLM lands to NPS to be included as part of the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument and to the Air Force to expand Nellis Air Force Base. Because CBO expects that the affected lands would not generate receipts over the next 10 years and because those lands are currently being managed by the federal government in a manner consistent with how they would be managed under the bill, CBO estimates that implementing those provisions would have no significant impact on the federal budget.
S. 974 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
