Discretionary Spending
Multiple Budget Functions
Impose Fees to Cover the Cost of Government Regulations and Charge for Services Provided to the Private Sector
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
| Billions of dollars | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2015-2019 | 2015-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change in Spending | |||||||||||||
| Budget authority | 0 | -1.5 | -1.8 | -2.0 | -2.3 | -2.5 | -2.6 | -2.7 | -2.7 | -2.8 | -7.7 | -20.9 | |
| Outlays | 0 | -1.5 | -1.8 | -2.0 | -2.3 | -2.5 | -2.6 | -2.7 | -2.7 | -2.8 | -7.7 | -20.9 | |
Note: This option would take effect in October 2015. Estimates are relative to CBO’s August 2014 baseline projections. Fees collected under this option could be recorded in the budget as offsetting collections (discretionary), offsetting receipts (usually mandatory), or revenues, depending on the specific legislative language used to establish them.
This option would impose several relatively small fees and taxes to cover the cost to the government of administering regulations or to ensure that the government is compensated for the value of services and resources provided to the private sector. This option would increase fees for permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, set grazing fees for federal lands on the basis of the state-determined formulas used to set grazing fees for state-owned lands, impose fees on users of the St. Lawrence Seaway, increase fees for the use of the inland waterway system, impose fees that recover the costs of registering pesticides and new chemicals, charge fees to offset the cost of federal rail-safety activities, charge transaction fees to fund the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, assess new fees to cover the costs for the Food and Drug Administration to review advertising and promotional materials for prescription drugs and biological products, and collect new fees for activities of the Food Safety and Inspection Service.