S. 2950, Scam Compound Accountability and Mobilization Act

S. 2950 would require the Administration to impose sanctions on foreign persons who own, operate, or otherwise support international scam compounds. Scam compounds are physical installations where significant transnational criminal organizations carry out cyber-enabled fraud operations, frequently using the forced labor of victims of human trafficking.

Additionally, the bill would require the Administration to develop a strategy to combat cyber-enabled fraud undertaken at scam compounds, establish a task force to implement that strategy, and report annually to the Congress on the status of that strategy and the state of scam compounds. The bill also would direct the President to provide a semiannual report to the Congress about the foreign persons who have been sanctioned under the bill’s provisions. Finally, the bill would instruct the Administration to report to the Congress on options for providing financial redress to the victims of operations run by international scam compounds.

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. Under the bill, any person or entity violating those prohibitions would be subject to civil or criminal monetary penalties. Such 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 under the bill would affect a small number of people. Thus, enacting S. 2950 would increase revenues and direct spending by insignificant amounts, and would, on net, reduce deficits by less than $500,000 over the 2026-2035 period.

Using information about the cost of reports and task forces similar to those required by the bill, CBO estimates that implementing S. 2950 would cost less than $500,000 each year and total $1 million over the 2026-2030 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

S. 2950 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 that 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. 2950 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.

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.