S. 713 would designate the following geographic regions as national heritage areas (NHAs) in their respective states:
The Appalachian Forest area in West Virginia and Maryland,
The Maritime Washington area in Washington,
The Mountains to Sound Greenway area in Washington, and
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area in California.
The proposed NHAs would not become units of the National Park System. The bill would direct the National Park Service (NPS) to select a local entity to develop a plan to manage lands within each of the proposed heritage areas, subject to the agency’s approval. Finally, the legislation would authorize the appropriation of $40 million, in total, over a 15-year period for the agency’s oversight costs and for assistance to the local entities that will manage the areas.
Based on information from the NPS on the costs of overseeing existing heritage areas, CBO expects that the agency would spend the authorized amounts over the next 10 years (about $1 million annually for each NHA) to review each area’s proposed management plan, provide technical and financial assistance to the local management entity, and to carry out other routine activities related to overseeing the proposed areas. Thus, CBO estimates that implementing S. 713 would cost about $20 million over the 2018-2022 period and an additional $20 million after 2022, assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts.
Enacting the legislation would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
CBO estimates that enacting S. 713 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 713 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.
