H.R. 3662 would amend current law to provide more Congressional oversight over U.S. economic and trade sanctions. The bill would prohibit the President from removing certain sanctions unless specific certifications are provided to the Congress. In addition, H.R. 3662 would subject any changes to Iranian sanctions to the Congressional Review Act, which allows the Congress to review and disapprove of new agency rules.
Specifically, H.R. 3662 would require the Administration to make certain certifications before it could remove sanctioned Iranian entities from U.S. lists of specially designated nationals and blocked persons and would expand the prohibited list of organizations under other sanctions. As a result of those requirements, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3662 would increase administrative costs of the Treasury Department by less than $500,000 annually, subject to the availability of appropriations.
In addition, because of its possible effect on the removal of sanctions on Iran, H.R. 3662 could increase both revenues and associated direct spending. If the bill’s requirement of Presidential certification had no effect on sanctions, there would be no budgetary effect. If, on the other hand, enacting the bill effectively nullified the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) related to Iran’s nuclear activities, certain sanctions would continue in effect, and additional revenues (relative to CBO’s baseline) from penalties for violations of those sanctions would amount to about $220 million over the 2016-2025 period, CBO estimates. Most of those receipts would be spent, so direct spending also would increase, but by less than the revenues. On net, deficits over the 2016-2025 period would be reduced. However, CBO has no basis for a specific estimate of those budgetary effects because it has no basis for projecting how the legislation might affect the timing of the possible waiver of sanctions under the JCPOA.
Because enacting the legislation could affect direct spending and revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3662 would not increase net direct spending by more than $5 billion and would not increase on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2026.
