Description:
On May 16, 2018, the House Committee on Ways and Means ordered seven bills to be reported related to the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic. Because the bills are related, CBO is publishing a single comprehensive document that includes estimates for each piece of legislation.
H.R. 5788 would establish a new fee for certain items mailed to the United States from overseas, beginning January 1, 2020. Initially, the fee for most such items would be one dollar, but the amount could be adjusted annually thereafter. Using information provided by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), CBO estimates that about $100 million in new fees would be collected over the 2020-2028 period. The collections would be divided equally between CBP and the Postal Service and spent by those agencies on activities related to the processing of inbound mail. CBO estimates that the net effect on federal spending in each year would be insignificant.
H.R. 5788 would direct the Postal Service, CBP, and other federal agencies to collaborate to develop technology to detect opioids and other drugs that enter the United States in the mail. Using information provided by CBP, CBO estimates that it would cost roughly $100 million over the 2019-2021 period to deploy drug detection systems at international mail facilities.
