S. 2750 would codify Operation Stonegarden, a grant program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Under the program, FEMA awards grants to state and tribal law enforcement agencies to enhance security along the nation’s borders and to improve coordination between those agencies and the federal government. The bill would authorize the appropriation of $110 million annually through 2024 to award grants.
CBO assumes that the bill will be enacted in 2020. In 2020, FEMA received appropriations totaling $90 million to administer the program, thus, CBO estimates $20 million of that total authorization would remain effective in 2020. Using information provided by FEMA, CBO estimates that, implementing S. 2750 would cost $412 million over the 2020-2025 period and $49 million after 2025, assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts.
S. 2750 also would require FEMA to collect and maintain information on each grant, establish guidelines for tracking program performance and conducting audits, and report additional information to the Congress. To implement those additional requirements, CBO estimates that FEMA would need to hire one additional employee at an average annual cost of about $150,000.
The costs of the legislation (detailed in Table 1) fall within budget function 450 (community and regional development).
