Description:
H.R. 1240 would require the Secretary of Commerce to establish a program to provide grants for training, education, outreach, and technical assistance to young fishermen. The bill would authorize the expenditure of $2 million a year over the 2021-2025 period from the Fisheries Enforcement Asset Forfeiture Fund for those purposes. (Grants would be capped at $200,000 for each recipient and could be renewed for up to three fiscal years.) Amounts in the fisheries fund are available to be spent on authorized purposes without further appropriation. That fund has a balance of about $17 million and collects about $4 million a year in penalties. CBO estimates that authorizing the grant program would increase direct spending by $10 million from the fund over the 2020-2025 period. The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 establishes budget-reporting and enforcement procedures for legislation affecting direct spending or revenues. The net changes in outlays that are subject to those pay-as-you-go procedures are shown in Table 1.
