Description:
Under current law, service members may terminate leases for residential, business, or other properties after receiving permanent change of station or deployment orders. H.R. 5882 would permit the spouse of a service member who dies while in military service to terminate property leases previously entered into by the service member. Under the bill, the spouse could terminate such leases without charge or penalty during the year following the service member’s death. CBO estimates that H.R. 5882 would have no effect on the federal budget. Enacting H.R. 5882 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5882 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029. H.R. 5882 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). The bill would impose a private-sector mandate as defined in UMRA by prohibiting real property lessors, in certain instances, from imposing early termination fees on the spouses of deceased service members. Due to the small population of spouses affected, CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would fall below the annual private-sector threshold established in UMRA ($160 million in 2018, adjusted annually for inflation).
