As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on May 16, 2013
S. 342 would designate 26,000 acres of land in northwest Nevada as the Pine Forest Range Wilderness. The bill also would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct certain land exchanges. Based on information provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), CBO estimates that implementing S. 342 would have no significant impact on the federal budget. Enacting the legislation would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
The acreage to be added to the National Wilderness Preservation System is currently administered by BLM. CBO estimates that no additional resources would be required to manage the affected lands as a result of the new designation. Based on information provided by BLM, CBO expects that certain road modifications required under the bill would be made under current law. Finally, we expect that any costs to revise brochures, maps, and signs would be minimal because most such revisions would take place in conjunction with scheduled reprinting and routine maintenance.
In addition, S. 342 would give the Secretary of the Interior the discretion to make certain land exchanges in accordance with an existing resource management plan. Because the Secretary could use existing authorities to complete those land exchanges, CBO expects that any exchanges conducted under the bill would also occur under current law, and thus we estimate that the provision would have no budgetary impact.
Finally, CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would have no effect on offsetting receipts because the affected lands are already managed for conservation purposes and are not expected to generate any income in the future.
S. 342 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.
