As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on June 21, 2012
S. 3264 would authorize appropriations for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program through 2017. Under this program, EPA provides assistance and grants to the parishes and cities within the Lake Pontchartrain Basin watershed and to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation for restoration and education projects to improve the ecological health of the basin. The bill would limit the annual authorized funding over the 2013-2017 period to the lesser of $20 million or the lowest amount appropriated for grants and assistance for any of the preceding five fiscal years. According to EPA, $1 million is the lowest annual amount appropriated since 2008 for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program. Thus, CBO estimates that implementing S. 3264 would cost $5 million over the 2013-2017 period.
Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation because the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues.
S. 3264 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
