As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on November 13, 2014
S. 2104 would require the National Park Service (NPS) to reimburse states for funds they donated to the federal government to operate certain national park units during the period of lapsed appropriations that occurred from October 1, 2013, to October 16, 2013.
Governors of six states (Arizona, Colorado, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah) signed agreements with the Department of the Interior (DOI) to donate about $3.6 million to operate 13 national park units in October of 2013. When appropriations for the NPS were enacted on October 17, 2013, about $1.6 million of the unspent donations were returned to the states. Based on information provided by the NPS and assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates that implementing S. 2104 would cost about $2 million—an amount equivalent to the states’ donations that were spent to operate national park units during that period.
Enacting S. 2104 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
S. 2104 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
On December 18, 2013, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 3286, Protecting States, Opening National Parks Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on December 4, 2013. H.R. 3286 would require the Department of Treasury to reimburse states for the operation of national parks during the government shutdown. Unlike S. 2104, however, the reimbursement requirement in H.R. 3286 would not be subject to the availability of future appropriations.
