H.R. 7003, BIS Strategic Talent Recruitment to Enhance National Guardrails for Technological Handling Act

H.R. 7003 would authorize the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to hire not more than 25 technical experts to support the agency’s export licensing and enforcement activities. The bill would permit BIS to recruit such experts from outside the competitive civil service system and pay those employees at rates comparable to senior-level federal employees. That authority would expire after five years. The bill also would require BIS to report to the Congress on the effectiveness of those efforts.

CBO expects that BIS would begin recruiting technical experts in fiscal year 2026 and that 25 such employees would be working at the bureau by the end of fiscal year 2027. Using the parameters established under H.R. 7003, CBO estimates that annual salaries, benefits, and operating expenses for each technical expert would average about $390,000. In total, CBO estimates that those personnel costs and other administrative expenses to prepare the required reports would cost $45 million over the 2026-2031 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. CBO anticipates that BIS would maximize its use of the authority. If the bureau hires fewer than 25 experts, costs would be less than CBO estimates.

The estimated budgetary effects of the legislation are shown in Table 1. The costs of the legislation fall within budget function 050 (national defense).

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Aldo Prosperi. The estimate was reviewed by Christina Hawley Anthony, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.