S. 1536 would require the Department of Transportation (DOT) to designate an official to coordinate agency activities designed to prevent and address human trafficking, to establish an advisory committee on human trafficking within DOT, and to authorize that certain grant funds administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) be used for activities related to preventing human trafficking. Based on information from DOT, CBO estimates that implementing the provisions of the bill would require an additional one to two employees per year over the 2019-2022 period at a cost of about $1 million over the 2018-2022 period, assuming availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting S. 1536 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting S. 1536 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
Under current law, FMCSA has $4 million per year in contract authority (a mandatory form of budget authority) to provide education and outreach grants. S. 1536 would make education about preventing and reporting of human trafficking an additional eligible expense for grant recipients. Because states already have flexibility to use their education and outreach grant funds, CBO does not expect the additional authority would have any significant effect on spending over the 2018-2022 period.
S. 1536 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would benefit state and local agencies by authorizing the use of federal assistance to support the prevention of human trafficking. Any costs incurred by those entities would result from voluntary commitments.
