Description:
S. 1441 would require the President to impose sanctions on foreign persons (individuals or entities) who provide vessels to lay pipes for certain Russian energy pipelines. The President has the authority under current law to impose similar sanctions. The bill would require the Department of State to report to the Congress on its implementation of the bill and on the entities that are involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. By requiring such sanctions, CBO estimates that enacting S. 1441 would increase the number of people who would be denied visas by the Department of State and the number who would be subject to civil or criminal penalties. Most visa fees are retained by the department and spent without further appropriation, but some fees are deposited in the Treasury as revenues. Penalties also are recorded as revenues, and a portion of those penalties can be spent without further appropriation. Because CBO expects that very few additional people would be affected, CBO estimates the bill’s enactment would have insignificant effects on both revenues and direct spending. Imposing the sanctions required by S. 1441 would increase administrative costs of the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury. On the basis of the costs to implement similar legislation, CBO estimates that administering the specified sanctions and providing the required reports would cost less than $500,000 over the 2019-2024 period. That spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
