The following is a report prepared by the Congressional Budget Office. It has been coverted to a text-only format below by GovTrack.

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                    CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
                           COST ESTIMATE


                                                                              March 28, 2007



                               H.R. 886
                     Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2007
  As ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on March 7, 2007


SUMMARY

H.R. 886 would designate the Wild Sky Wilderness on 106,000 acres of federal lands within
the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington and would authorize the
Secretary of Agriculture to acquire nonfederal lands and interests within the proposed
wilderness. The bill would require the Secretary to prepare a plan to establish hiking trails
within the proposed wilderness and report to the Congress on the implementation of that
plan. Finally, H.R. 886 would direct the Secretary to convey to a local public utility district
a permanent easement to operate a snow-monitoring device on 1.82 acres of national forest
land in exchange for roughly 372 acres of land owned by that district.

CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 886 would cost $19 million over the 2008-2012
period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. Enacting this legislation could
affect offsetting receipts and direct spending, but we estimate that any such effects would be
negligible. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.

H.R. 886 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.


ESTIMATED COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The estimated budgetary impact of H.R. 886 is shown in the following table. The costs of
this legislation fall within budget function 300 (natural resources and environment).
                                                  By Fiscal Year, in Millions of Dollars
                                    2008          2009             2010            2011    2012


                       CHANGES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION

Estimated Authorization Level          7             5                5               1       1
Estimated Outlays                      7             5                5               1       1




BASIS OF ESTIMATE

CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 886 would cost $19 million over the 2008-2012
period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. We estimate that any forgone
offsetting receipts (a credit against direct spending) from enacting this legislation would be
negligible. Furthermore, any such changes would be offset by lowered direct spending. For
this estimate, CBO assumes that the bill will be enacted before the start of fiscal year 2008
and that the amounts estimated to be necessary will be appropriated near the start of each
fiscal year. Estimates of outlays are based on historical spending patterns for similar
activities.


Spending Subject to Appropriation

Based on information provided by the Forest Service, CBO estimates that designating the
proposed wilderness would increase the agency's administrative costs by roughly $250,000
to $500,000 a year. We also estimate that the agency would spend $6 million over the
2008-2010 period to remove roads that currently exist within the proposed wilderness;
$4 million over the 2008-2010 period to design and implement a system of trails; and up to
$7 million over the same period to acquire nonfederal lands and interests within the proposed
wilderness.


Direct Spending

Designating federal lands as wilderness could result in forgone offsetting receipts if, under
current law, those lands would generate income from activities such as timber harvesting and
mining. According to the Forest Service, those lands currently generate no significant
receipts but do contain timber valued at $6 million that may be harvested in the future. Such
sales proceeds can be spent by the Forest Service without further appropriation. Thus, CBO
estimates that any net budgetary impact from enacting this legislation would be negligible.

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INTERGOVERNMENTAL AND PRIVATE-SECTOR IMPACT

H.R. 886 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in UMRA and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.


ESTIMATE PREPARED BY:

Federal Costs: Tyler Kruzich
Impact on State, Local, and Tribal Governments: Marjorie Miller
Impact on the Private-Sector: Tyler Kruzich


ESTIMATE APPROVED BY:

Peter H. Fontaine
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis




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