H.R. 41, Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act

H.R. 41 would authorize five Alaskan Native communities to form urban corporations and receive certain settlement land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Alaska Native villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell would be allowed to organize as Alaska Native urban corporations. The bill would then direct the Department of the Interior to convey specified parcels of land to each of the urban corporations.

The parcels specified in the bill contain timber land in the Tongass National Forest. Any receipts generated from the sale of timber would be recorded in the federal budget as offsetting receipts, that is, as reductions in direct spending. Those receipts are available to be spent without further appropriation. The National Forest System also collects fees for special use permits on the land. Using information from the Forest Service, CBO estimates that the net effect on direct spending from decreased receipts from timber sales and the reduction in the associated spending would be negligible; the decrease in collections from special use fees would increase direct spending by an insignificant amount over the 2026-2036 period.

Based on the costs of similar programs, CBO estimates that the cost to implement H.R. 41 would be insignificant. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriations.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Julia Aman. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.