Description:
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on May 15, 2013
H.R. 1672 would withdraw about 19,000 acres of federal lands in Montana from programs to develop geothermal and mineral resources. The Army would manage the withdrawn lands and use them for military training purposes. Based on information provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant impact on the federal budget. Enacting H.R. 1672 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
Under current law, the affected lands are subject to a temporary right-of-way that allows the Army to use those lands for military training purposes. H.R. 1672 would prohibit certain activities that could generate receipts on the affected lands in the future (such receipts are accounted for in the budget as decreases in direct spending); however, because CBO expects that those lands would not generate any receipts over the next 10 years, we estimate that enacting the bill would not affect direct spending.
In addition, because the affected lands are already managed by the federal government, we estimate that implementing the legislation would not affect the costs of managing those lands. Finally, CBO estimates that any additional costs to prepare the legal description of the affected lands, as required under the bill, would total less than $5,000, subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
H.R. 1672 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
