The Congress often requires that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) perform an annual examination of a program, agency, or other federal activity. H.R. 5687 would modify or repeal nine of those activities.
Based on information from GAO, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would reduce discretionary costs by about $1 million over the 2017-2021 period; such reductions would be subject to future appropriations actions consistent with the provisions of this bill. GAO has an annual budget of more than $500 million and prepares hundreds of products for the Congress each year. CBO expects that implementing H.R. 5687 would not have a significant effect on the agency’s overall workload.
Enacting H.R. 5687 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5687 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
H.R. 5687 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 June 22, 2016, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 2964, the GAO Mandates Revision Act of 2016, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on May 25, 2016. The two pieces of legislation are similar, and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.
