H.R. 2791 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish a 15-person advisory committee that would be composed of members from tribal organizations. The committee would be required to meet at least twice annually and would provide VA with advice and guidance on issues relating to Native American veterans and tribal organizations.
Using information about the administrative costs of similar advisory committees of the department, CBO estimates that staff salaries, travel costs, and other expenses would be less than $500,000 annually. In total, implementing H.R. 2791would cost $2 million over the 2020-2025 period; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriations.
On April 13, 2020, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 524, the Department of Veterans Affairs Tribal Advisory Committee Act of 2019, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on January 29, 2020. The two bills are similar, and CBO’s estimates of the cost of implementing them are the same.
