H.R. 526 would require the President to sanction officials of the Cambodian government, military, or security forces responsible for violating human rights and undermining democracy in that country. The sanctions would include freezing assets held in the United States and prohibiting entry into the United States. H.R. 526 also would require the President to provide to the Congress a list of those sanctioned persons and to periodically update that list. The requirements of the bill would expire five years after enactment.
Implementing H.R. 526 would increase administrative costs of the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury. On the basis of the costs to implement similar legislation, CBO estimates that administering the specified sanctions would cost less than $500,000 each year and would total $1 million over the 2019-2024 period. That spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting H.R. 526 would increase the number of people who would be denied visas by the Department of State and the number who would be subject to civil or criminal penalties. Most visa fees are retained by the department and spent without further appropriation, but some fees are deposited in the Treasury as revenues. Penalties also are recorded as revenues, and a portion of those penalties can be spent without further appropriation. However, CBO expects H.R. 526 would affect very few additional people and thus would have insignificant effects on both revenues and direct spending.
H.R. 526 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA).
