H.R. 4528 would amend the Billfish Conservation Act of 2012 to prevent the transfer and sale of billfish caught and landed by U.S. vessels in Hawaii or the Pacific Insular Areas to the mainland United States. Under current law, billfish caught and landed in Hawaii or the Pacific Insular Areas by U.S. vessels can be sold locally or transported and sold in the mainland United States. The bill also would amend the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 to affirm that the Secretary of Commerce has the authority to regulate shark fishing under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 4528 would increase revenues from civil penalties resulting from violations of the prohibition on selling billfish to the mainland United States; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, using information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CBO estimates that the increased revenues would not be significant in any year and over the 2019-2028 period. Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 4528 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
The prohibitions in H.R. 4528 would impose a private-sector mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). Using information from NOAA about the value of billfish landed in Hawaii and Pacific Insular Areas, CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would total a few million dollars or less and would fall well below the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($160 million in 2018, adjusted annually for inflation).
The bill does not contain any intergovernmental mandates.
On August 17, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 396, a bill to make technical amendments to certain marine fish conservation statutes, and for other purposes, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on May 18, 2017. The two pieces of legislation are similar and the CBO’s estimate of the budgetary effects are the same.
