S. 1941 would require the Forest Service to exchange, at the request of a private entity, 82 acres of federal lands in the Pike National Forest for 320 acres of private lands in that forest. Because CBO expects that the parcels would have a similar value per acre, we estimate that the total value of the private lands would exceed the value of the affected federal lands. Under the bill, the federal government would not be required to compensate the private entity to make up for that difference. However, CBO expects that the Forest Service will receive annual payments of a little more than $30,000 for a special use permit on the affected federal parcel.
On that basis, CBO estimates that enacting S. 1941 would reduce offsetting receipts, which are treated as reductions in direct spending, by about $350,000 over the 2016-2025 period; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting S. 1941 would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits by more than $5 billion in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2026.
Because S. 1941 would require the private entity to pay any administrative costs associated with the land exchange and CBO expects that any updates to maps or signage would be completed in conjunction with scheduled reprinting and routine maintenance, we estimate that implementing the bill would not affect discretionary spending.
S. 1941 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). The land exchange between the federal government and a private business would have a small incidental effect on property taxes collected by local governments in Colorado. That effect, however, would not result from an intergovernmental mandate as defined in UMRA.
On September 9, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2223, the Crags, Colorado Land Exchange Act of 2015, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on July 9, 2015. The two versions of the legislation are similar, and the estimated costs are the same.
