As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 14, 2013
S. 244 would authorize the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to expand a pilot program that aims to accelerate and enhance the federal oil and gas permitting process at certain BLM offices. Under current law, 50 percent of onshore oil and gas rental payments received by BLM (excluding those from Alaska) is available to fund the pilot program at seven BLM offices through 2015. The bill would allow the Secretary to use those funds at additional offices in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.
Because CBO expects that any funds spent in the North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana offices under the bill would be spent at other offices under current law, we estimate that implementing the legislation would have no significant net impact on the federal budget. Enacting S. 244 could affect direct spending if expanding the pilot program resulted in BLM spending funds faster than it would under current law; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that any such impacts would be small over the 2014-2023 period. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
S. 244 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
