H.R. 6500 would reauthorize and extend, through December 31, 2028, the program of reduced or free duties specified under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for certain products imported from roughly 30 eligible sub-Saharan countries. The legislation also would retroactively reinstate preferential rates, which allow importers to receive refunds for the higher duties they paid after the program expired on September 30, 2025.
H.R. 6500 would extend the authorization for customs user fees through December 31, 2031. Those fees, which are set to expire on September 30, 2031, are collected by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to cover some of the costs of inspecting people and cargo entering the country. The fees are classified in the budget as mandatory offsetting collections; that is, as reductions in direct spending. CBO estimates that extending the fees would reduce direct spending by $1.1 billion over the 2026-2035 period.
For this estimate, CBO assumes that the legislation will be enacted early in calendar year 2026. Using data from the Census Bureau, CBO estimates that extending and amending AGOA would reduce revenues by $578 million over the 2026-2035 period. CBO estimates that, of that amount, $73 million would be issued in refunds for higher duties paid after the preferences expire.
The costs of the legislation detailed in Table 1, fall within budget function 750 (administration of justice).
Table 1.
Estimated Budgetary Effects of H.R. 6500
By Fiscal Year, Millions of Dollars
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2026-2030
2026-2035
Decreases in Direct Spending
Estimated Budget Authority
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,100
0
0
0
0
-1,100
Estimated Outlays
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,100
0
0
0
0
-1,100
Decreases in Revenues
Estimated Revenues
-176
-176
-180
-46
0
0
0
0
0
0
-578
-578
Net Increase or Decrease (-) in the Deficit From Changes in Direct Spending and Revenues
Effect on the Deficit
176
176
180
46
0
0
-1,100
0
0
0
578
-522
CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 6500 would increase spending subject to appropriation by less than $500,000 over the 2026-2030 period.
CBO estimates that the additional administrative costs incurred by CBP to implement the legislation would be less than $500,000 over the 2026-2030 period. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
H.R. 6500 would impose a private-sector mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) on entities required to pay customs user fees by extending the authority of the federal government to collect those fees. The cost of the mandate would be the amounts paid by those entities over the three-month extension in 2031.
Because CBO estimates that the legislation would result in entities remitting $1.1 billion during the extension, we estimate that the cost of the mandate would exceed the threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($206 million in 2025, adjusted annually for inflation).
The legislation contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jack Lynch. The estimate was reviewed by John McClelland, Director of Tax Analysis.
