H.R. 6302 would temporarily reinstate two depredation orders that allow people to take double-crested cormorants without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). (Take has many meanings, including to kill, capture, sell, or transport cormorants.) Those orders would terminate once the agency issued regulations to control cormorant populations. At that time, cormorant hunters would again need to obtain permits.
Under current law, a permit to take cormorants, which costs $100, generally allows one person to take between 20 and 150 cormorants. CBO estimates that the nationwide limit, which is set by USFWS, will be about 50,000 birds annually and that those fees total about $300,000 each year. Those fees are recorded as reductions in direct spending and USFWS has authority to spend those amounts without further appropriation action. Under the bill, those fees would not be collected while the two depredation orders were in effect.
Because enacting H.R. 6302 would reduce offsetting receipts and the associated direct spending from fees for permits that allow for the taking of cormorants, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that the net effect on direct spending would be negligible. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 6302 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. 6302 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
