H.R. 6678 would direct the National Park Service (NPS) to convey, at the request of the Friends of the Claude Moore Colonial Farm at Turkey Run, Inc. (Friends), the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in McLean, Virginia. The bill would require the Friends to pay all the costs of the conveyance. The Friends’ current agreement to operate the farm expires on December 21, 2018. Although CBO has no information on the NPS’s plans for the farm after that, the agency could pursue several options under existing authority.
Using information on operating costs from recent years, CBO estimates that the NPS would incur costs of about $2 million over the 2019-2023 period to manage the farm itself. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. CBO expects that under H.R. 6678, the Friends would request a conveyance from the NPS. In that event, implementing the bill could reduce costs for the NPS.
Alternatively, the NPS could enter into a lease or a cooperative agreement with a new partner organization to manage the farm. If the farm was leased, the payments (which would be recorded as offsetting receipts, or reductions in direct spending) would be available to the NPS for spending without further appropriation. Enacting the bill would reduce the likelihood that the NPS would enter into such an arrangement, and would thus reduce offsetting receipts and the subsequent direct spending. However, CBO estimates that the change in net direct spending would be negligible. Because enacting H.R. 6678 could affect direct spending; pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 6678 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. 6678 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
