S. 2977 would renew sanctions on Venezuela through calendar year 2021. Those sanctions, which expired at the end of calendar year 2019, targeted individuals acting on behalf of the Venezuelan government who are responsible for human rights abuses and violence in that country. Reimposing those sanctions would deny affected people entry into the Unites States and would block transactions in their assets and property that are in the United States or come under the control of U.S. persons.
CBO estimates that enacting S. 2977 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 for violating the sanctions. 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. Because CBO expects that very few additional people would be affected, CBO estimates the bill’s enactment would have insignificant effects on both revenues and direct spending.
Renewing the sanctions would increase administrative costs of the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury. On the basis of the costs to administer other sanctions, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost less than $500,000 over the 2020-2024 period. That spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
