Description:
H.R. 3839 would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to transfer 200 acres of land to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to expand a national cemetery. Based on information provided by the affected agencies, CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would have no significant effect on the federal budget.
Because enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3839 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
Under the bill, the affected lands would be withdrawn from mining and mineral leasing activities. Based on information provided by BLM, CBO expects that those activities would not occur over the next 10 years, and we estimate that withdrawing the lands would not affect the federal budget.
In addition, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3839 would have insignificant costs for VA to cover administrative expenses associated with the transfer, make improvements to the Black Hills National Cemetery, and complete due diligence investigations and reports. Also, if VA determines that the transferred land would not be used for cemetery purposes, VA would be required to return the land back to BLM and would be responsible for any decontamination costs before transfer. Because an environmental assessment of the property has not been completed, the potential costs for decontamination are unknown; therefore, CBO has no basis to estimate any such costs.
H.R. 3839 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
