S. 1854, Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2025

S. 1854 would require the Department of State to report to the Congress annually for six years on the ties between criminal gangs and political and economic elites in Haiti, such as current and former Haitian government officials and people with significant influence on Haiti’s economy. Based on information about similar reporting requirements, CBO estimates that providing those reports would cost less than $500,000 over the 2026-2030 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

The bill also would require the President to impose sanctions on foreign persons who are members of Haitian criminal gangs or political and economic elites linked to such gangs. Under current law, the Administration can sanction the persons and entities covered under S. 1854. If enactment of the bill leads the Administration to broaden those sanctions, more people would be denied visas by the Department of State, resulting in an insignificant decrease in revenues from visa fees. Although most visa fees are retained by the Department of State and spent, some collections are deposited into the Treasury as revenues. Denying foreign nationals entry into the United States also would reduce direct spending on federal benefits (emergency Medicaid or federal subsidies for health insurance, for example) for which those people might otherwise be eligible.

In addition, the bill would block transactions involving certain assets either in the United States or under the control of people or entities in the United States. Any person or entity violating those prohibitions would be subject to civil or criminal monetary penalties. Those penalties are recorded in the federal budget as revenues, and a portion can be spent without further appropriation.

On the basis of data about similar sanctions, CBO estimates that any additional sanctions imposed would affect a small number of people. Thus, enacting S. 1854 would have insignificant effects on revenues and direct spending, and would, on net, reduce deficits by less than $500,000 over the 2026-2035 period.

S. 1854 would impose a private-sector mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by expanding the scope of authority for the Administration to regulate transactions between entities in the United States and foreign entities and officials of foreign governments who would be subject to sanctions under the bill. That expansion would result in additional burdens on individuals and entities, such as banks, in the United States that are required to monitor and report on foreign transactions and to block access to certain assets owned by sanctioned entities. It also would prohibit transactions between entities in the United States and sanctioned parties that otherwise would be permitted under current law.

The cost of the mandate would be any income or profit lost as a result of the bill’s enactment. CBO expects that because a small number of people or entities would be affected, the loss of income from any incremental increase in restrictions imposed by the bill would be small as well. CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would fall well below the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($206 million in 2025, adjusted annually for inflation).

S. 1854 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.

On May 22, 2025, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2643, the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2025, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on April 9, 2025. The bills are similar, and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are David Rafferty (for federal costs) and Brandon Lever (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by Christina Hawley Anthony, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.