As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on November 21, 2013
H.R. 876 would authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to issue permits for land owners with valid water rights under state law to continue using certain water storage, transport, and diversion facilities in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of Idaho. According to the Forest Service, any costs to process the permits would be paid by the permit holders. Because the legislation would affect direct spending (through the collection and spending of receipts), pay-as-you-go procedures apply; however, CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 876 would have an insignificant impact on net direct spending. Enacting the legislation would not affect revenues.
H.R. 876 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 May 3, 2013, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 876, the Idaho Wilderness Water Resources Protection Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on April 24, 2013. The two versions of the legislation are similar, as are CBO’s estimates.
