S. 1143 would authorize Washington, Oregon, and California to continue to manage commercial fishing for Dungeness crabs in federal waters adjacent to their states until the Pacific Fishery Management Council develops a formal fishery management plan for the area. Under current law, the states’ authority to manage their Dungeness crab fisheries will expire on September 30, 2016. After that date, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will manage the fishery.
If the states’ authority to manage the fishery expires, CBO estimates that NOAA will require appropriations totaling $1 million a year beginning in 2017 to hire 10 to 15 new employees to carry out administrative activities related to managing the fishery. Under the bill, CBO expects that the three states would continue to manage their Dungeness crab fisheries largely at state expense. Therefore, we estimate that implementing the bill would reduce the need for discretionary appropriations (and associated spending) by $1 million a year over the 2017-2020 period.
Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2026.
S. 1143 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. Any costs incurred by states to continue regulating their fisheries would be incurred voluntarily.
On September 30, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2168, the West Coast Dungeness Crab Management Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on September 10, 2015. The two bills are similar, and CBO’s estimated costs are the same for both bills.
