Description:
H.R. 2026 would establish a fund that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) could use to award grants for amphibian conservation. The bill would authorize the appropriation of $5 million annually over the 2022-2027 period for that purpose. For this estimate, CBO assumes that the legislation will be enacted late in fiscal year 2022. Assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts, and based on historical spending patterns for similar programs, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 2026 would cost $23 million over the 2022-2026 period and $7 million after 2026. H.R. 2026 would allow USFWS to accept donations to the fund, which would be classified in the budget as offsetting receipts (reductions in direct spending). CBO expects that those amounts would be insignificant in any year and would be spent soon after they are received. The bill also would direct the Department of the Treasury to credit interest on unspent balances to the fund and USFWS could spend that interest without further appropriation. (Credited interest is considered an intragovernmental transfer with no budgetary effect, but the spending of that interest would increase direct spending.) Using the interest rates underlying the July 2021 baseline, CBO estimates that the amount of interest credited to the fund and subsequently spent would be insignificant over the 2022-2031 period.
