H.R. 3283 would require the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) to report to the Congress on whether the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Forest Service have established online portals to process requests to place and operate communications facilities on federal land and to identify any barriers to the portals’ establishment. The NTIA would be required to report 90 days after enactment and every 60 days thereafter. The bill would not require DOI or the Forest Service to establish such a portal; only to notify the NTIA if they do.
Using information about the cost of similar provisions, CBO estimates that the cost of the reports would not be significant; any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
On August 2, 2023, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 3283, the Facilitating DIGITAL Applications Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 24, 2023. The two pieces of legislation are similar, and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Margot Berman. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
