S. 1003 would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue a rule that shark attacks are an event for which wireless emergency alerts may be transmitted.
Based on the cost of similar activities, CBO estimates that the administrative costs to implement S. 1003 would be insignificant. Because the FCC is authorized to collect fees each year sufficient to offset the appropriated costs of its regulatory activities, CBO estimates that the net cost to the FCC would be negligible, assuming appropriation actions consistent with that authority.
If the FCC increases annual fee collections to offset the costs of implementing provisions in the bill, S. 1003 would increase the cost of an existing private-sector mandate on entities required to pay those fees. CBO estimates that the incremental cost of the mandate would be small and would fall well below the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) for private-sector mandates ($203 million in 2025, adjusted annually for inflation).
S. 1003 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Margot Berman (for federal costs) and Rachel Austin (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
