H.R. 2582 would allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to process the selection of 520 acres of federal land in Utah under the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. That act authorized the state of Utah to select certain federal lands to be held in trust by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), an independent state agency, for the benefit of the state. The state used that authority to select 520 acres of land that BLM identified for disposal. However, because BLM’s land use plan for the area containing the selected lands does not allow land to be disposed of through the land selection process, the agency cannot transfer those lands to the state without revising its existing plan. Using information from BLM, CBO does not expect the agency to make the necessary revisions to that plan within the next 10 years.
Under H.R. 2582, BLM would be authorized to process SITLA’s land selections without revising its existing land use plan. The affected lands currently generate receipts from grazing allotments, rights-of-way, and gravel pits. Based on historical collections, CBO estimates receipts from those sources will total less than $25,000 a year over the next 10 years. Thus, CBO estimates that allowing SITLA to take the affected lands into trust would not have a significant effect on offsetting receipts (which are recorded in the budget as reductions in direct spending) over the 2019-2028 period. Because enacting H.R. 2582 would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. The legislation would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2582 would not significantly increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
H.R. 2582 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would benefit the state of Utah and local governments by expediting the transfer of federal lands to the state. The transfer could increase revenue from resource development on state trust lands; those revenues are used to fund public schools in Utah. Any costs incurred by the State of Utah or local governments associated would result from voluntary commitments.
On September 11, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2582, the Confirming State Land Grants for Education Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on July 26, 2017. The two versions of the legislation are similar, and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.
