As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on March 20, 2013
S. 601 would authorize the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to construct water projects for mitigating storm damage, restoring ecosystems, and reducing erosion on inland and intracoastal waterways. The legislation also would authorize the agency to establish grant programs to assist local and state governments with levee safety and rehabilitation programs. Finally, S. 601 would authorize the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide loans or loan guarantees to state and local governments and certain nongovernmental entities to complete water infrastructure projects.
Assuming appropriation of the authorized and necessary amounts, including adjustments for anticipated increases in construction costs, CBO estimates that implementing S. 601 would cost about $5.9 billion over the 2014-2018 period. Spending would continue from amounts authorized to be appropriated under the bill after 2018, and CBO estimates that such spending would total $6.6 billion over the 2019-2023 period.
The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates that enacting the bill would reduce revenues by $135 million over the next 10 years; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending.
S. 601 would impose intergovernmental and private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). Public and private entities would be required to comply with regulations to prevent the spread of invasive species. Because the number of affected entities and the cost of compliance would probably be small, CBO expects that the costs of the mandates would fall below the annual thresholds established in UMRA for intergovernmental and private-sector mandates ($75 million and $150 million in 2013, respectively, adjusted annually for inflation).
