Description:
S. 500 would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize a program within the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Health Affairs to coordinate efforts to defend U.S. food, agriculture, and veterinary systems against terrorism.
CBO estimates that implementing S. 500 would cost about $500,000 a year; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. In 2016, the department allocated $475,000 for this activity. A full year appropriation for the department has not yet been enacted for 2017.
Enacting S. 500 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting S. 500 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 500 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.
On March 13, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 1238, the Securing our Agriculture and Food Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Homeland Security on March 8, 2017. The two pieces of legislation are similar and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.
