H.R. 6978, Preserving Integrity in Immigration Benefits Act

H.R. 6978 would direct Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to review all immigration benefit requests that have been approved since January 20, 2021, from nationals of 40 countries identified in Presidential Proclamation 10998. The bill would require the Director of USCIS to brief the Congress and to report on the results of the review.

On January 1, 2026, USCIS announced it would conduct a review of immigration benefit requests approved since 2021 for aliens from countries identified in the proclamation. Therefore, CBO expects that enacting the bill would cost less than $500,000 over the 2026-2036 period, primarily for the report. USCIS collects fees to cover most of its operating costs. Those fees are recorded in the budget as reductions in direct spending and can be spent without further appropriation action. Accordingly, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would have a negligible effect on direct spending over the 2026-2036 period.

If USCIS increases fees to offset the costs associated with implementing the bill, H.R. 6978 would increase the cost of an existing mandate on private entities required to pay those assessments. CBO estimates that the incremental cost of that mandate would be small and fall below the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) for private-sector mandates ($214 million in 2026, adjusted annually for inflation).

H.R. 6978 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are David Rafferty (for federal costs) and Lucy Marret (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.