H.R. 3087, Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Reauthorization Act of 2026As ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on May 20, 2026
By Fiscal Year, Millions of Dollars
2026
2026-2031
2026-2036
Direct Spending (Outlays)
0
*
*
Revenues
0
0
0
Increase or Decrease (-) in the Deficit
0
*
*
Spending Subject to Appropriation (Outlays)
0
13
not estimated
Increases net direct spending in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2037?
No
Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply?
Yes
Mandate Effects
Increases on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2037?
H.R. 3087 would extend the authorization of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) through January 2030 with an option for the board to extend for an additional year. (The board’s authority ended in January 2026.) The five-member board facilitates investigations of unsolved civil rights cases by increasing the volume of documents available to the public. The bill also would strike a provision in current law that exempts state and local governments from the requirement to transmit civil rights cold case records held in their possession to the collection established by the board.
The estimated budgetary effects of the legislation are shown in Table 1. The costs of the legislation fall within budget function 800 (general government).
According to the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, the number of unresolved civil rights cases from 1940 through 1979 is probably in the hundreds. Using information from NARA on the board’s current operating costs, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost about $3 million each year. In addition, the bill would authorize the board to reimburse state and local governments for expenses incurred in digitizing, photocopying, or mailing records to NARA for inclusion in the collection; CBO expects that such reimbursements would be small. CBO assumes that the board would vote to extend its authority through January 2031. On that basis, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3087 would cost $13 million over the 2027-2031 period; any spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Table 1.
Estimated Budgetary Effects of H.R. 3087
By Fiscal Year, Millions of Dollars
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2026-2031
Increases in Spending Subject to Appropriation
Estimated Authorization
0
3
3
3
3
1
13
Estimated Outlays
0
3
3
3
3
1
13
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3087 would have a negligible effect on net direct spending over the 2026-2036 period.
NARA is authorized to charge fees to cover the costs of processing certain requests; those fees are classified as offsetting receipts (that is, as reductions in direct spending) and are available to spend without further appropriation. Thus, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would have a negligible effect on net direct spending over the 2026-2036 period.
H.R. 3087 would impose an intergovernmental mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). The bill would strike a provision in current law that exempts state and local governments from the requirement to transmit civil rights cold case records held in their possession to the collection established by the board. CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would not exceed the annual intergovernmental threshold established by UMRA ($107 million in 2026, adjusted annually for inflation).
The bill does not contain any private-sector mandates.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Matthew Pickford (for federal costs) and Andrew Laughlin (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
