H.R. 1350 would authorize the National Park Service (NPS) to acquire and integrate new lands into the Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota through land exchanges with the state and local governments that own land within or adjacent to the park’s boundaries. (Under current law, the federal government can only acquire lands from state or local governments through donation.) The bill also would authorize the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain lands within the park from the Bureau of Land Management to the NPS.
CBO expects that the properties to be exchanged by the NPS and the state and local governments under H.R. 1350 would be roughly equal in value. If the appraisals indicate that the parcels’ values are different, however, existing law requires that the party receiving the more valuable land provide a cash equalization payment. If the NPS were to acquire land of a higher value than the federal land exchanged, CBO expects that the NPS would make a cash payment. Using information from the NPS, CBO expects that any costs to make any cash payment and to administer lands affected by the bill would not exceed $500,000 in any year; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting H.R. 1350 could affect direct spending; therefore; pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Under the bill, if the NPS were to acquire land of a lower value than the federal land exchanged, the NPS would receive a cash payment to equalize the values; any such payments would be recorded as offsetting receipts, which are treated as reductions in direct spending. Using information from the NPS, however, CBO estimates that any such payment would not exceed $500,000 in any year. Enacting H.R. 1350 would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 1350 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 1350 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
On April 7, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 502 as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 30, 2017. The bills are similar, and CBO’s estimates of the budgetary effects are the same.
