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Budget Option
June 2, 2016
Each year, about 12 million shipping containers enter U.S. ports. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, concern arose that terrorists might use containers to smuggle weapons of mass destruction—particularly nuclear weapons—into the country. To reduce that threat, the federal government implemented several security measures. Among them, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), scans every container entering the United States by sea or land to detect radiation.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
As of the end of 2014, only about 17 percent of offshore parcels leased by the federal government were producing oil or gas. Some analysts speculate that firms are not gathering much information about parcels until after they have acquired leases for them. A new fee on nonproducing parcels could encourage firms to gather more information before an auction, to focus on the most promising parcels, and to bid more competitively for those parcels.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
Leases for oil and gas development on federal lands onshore include a rental fee for nonproducing parcels; the current fee is $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 per acre for the next five years. Legislation that established a separate new fee of $6 per acre on nonproducing leases would increase net federal income by $200 million over 10 years, CBO estimates. That effect is the net result of increases in income from fees and decreases in income from bonus bids, because the new fee would slightly reduce the amount private firms would be willing to bid in an auction for leases.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
Auctions for onshore federal lands to be leased for oil and gas development currently require a minimum bid of $2 per acre; that amount was set by the Bureau of Land Management and could be increased through future rulemaking or legislation. Parcels that receive no auction bids may be leased noncompetitively, with no initial per-acre payment; that provision also could be changed through rulemaking or legislation.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
The royalty rate for onshore oil and gas production from federal lands is 12.5 percent, which is the lowest royalty rate allowed under current law. That rate is lower than the 18.75 percent charged for offshore oil and gas production and lower than the rates charged by many key Western states, including Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. (Many states have increased their royalty rates over the past decade.) Although the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has the statutory authority to increase the royalty rate, it has not done so.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) imposes a single royalty rate for all offshore leases in federal waters, regardless of whether the parcel is producing oil, gas, or both. Various laws have reduced or eliminated royalty payments in certain areas if prices fall below a particular threshold: In 2014, for parcels in deep water or deep wells in shallow water, the threshold was set at about $5 per thousand cubic feet for gas and about $40 per barrel for oil. In addition, BOEM has the authority to waive royalty payments for leaseholders who request such a waiver.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
Starting in 1983, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) began leasing parcels for offshore oil and gas production through an approach called areawide leasing, which divides all offshore acreage into discrete areas and then makes most parcels within each area available for auction according to the schedule devised in each five-year leasing program. That approach represented a change from a system in which BOEM largely determined which offshore parcels would be made available for leasing.
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Budget Option
April 19, 2016
Leasing of federal lands onshore for oil and gas production occurs through an open-outcry auction, as mandated by the authorizing legislation. Changing to a sealed-bid design would increase net federal income by $100 million over the subsequent 10 years, CBO estimates, by increasing competition between firms for parcels. That additional competition would probably increase the amount that firms would have to pay to lease more valuable parcels and, as a result, could reduce the funds available in firms’ exploration budgets for bidding on less valuable parcels.
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Budget Option
September 25, 2015
The federal government reimburses schools and child care centers for meals served to students through the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Reimbursement rates for meals served to children from households with income greater than 185 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) were up to 57 cents per lunch, 28 cents per breakfast, and 7 cents per snack in the 2014–15 school year. The federal government reimburses schools at a higher rate for meals served to children from lower-income households.
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Budget Option
September 9, 2015
Three housing assistance programs—Housing Choice Voucher, project-based rental assistance, and public housing—together accounted for $36 billion in federal spending in 2014. That spending reflects the government’s cost of providing standard rental housing for assisted tenants, who usually pay 30 percent of their gross family income (after certain adjustments) toward their rent. To reduce federal spending, lawmakers could gradually increase the share of income that tenants contribute toward rent from 30 percent of adjusted household income to 35 percent over a five-year period.
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Budget Option
September 9, 2015
Over the past decade, appropriations for the administration of federal housing assistance have been lower than the amounts indicated by the funding formula outlined in appropriations acts and federal regulations—averaging about 80 percent of those designated amounts. According to CBO’s estimates, if lawmakers were to appropriate amounts indicated by the formula—while holding constant the number of households served—doing so would increase federal spending by $4 billion from 2016 to 2025 compared with maintaining funding, in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, at its 2014 level.
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Budget Option
September 9, 2015
The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program provides federally funded, portable vouchers that low-income households may use to help pay for housing they choose in the private market. Currently, only about one-quarter of the eligible low-income population receives housing assistance through federal spending programs. To illustrate the costs associated with extending housing assistance to more of the eligible population, CBO analyzed the budgetary effects of the following options:
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Budget Option
September 9, 2015
The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program provides federally funded, portable vouchers that low-income households may use to help pay for housing they choose in the private market. To illustrate ways to decrease costs associated with the HCV program, which accounted for $18 billion in federal spending in 2014, CBO analyzed the budgetary effects of reducing appropriations for the program by:
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Budget Option
September 9, 2015
Federal housing programs, with limited exceptions, do not require that assisted tenants engage in work-related activity, and such assistance is not targeted specifically to the working poor. However, the voluntary Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program helps tenants find and keep employment that increases their earnings. As participants successfully complete the program and leave assisted housing, the housing assistance they formerly received is made available to those on waiting lists.
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Budget Option
September 9, 2015
The federal government allocates a fixed amount for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) for states to distribute to real estate developers who construct new housing or substantially rehabilitate existing housing and reserve some of the units for low-income households. According to an estimate by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, repealing the LIHTC would increase revenues by $42 billion from 2016 through 2025.
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Budget Option
November 20, 2014
Generally, low-income tenants who receive federal rental assistance must pay 30 percent of their gross family income (after certain adjustments) for rent; the federal government pays the difference between that amount and the maximum allowable rent. Under this option, tenants’ rental contributions would gradually increase from 30 percent of adjusted gross family income to 35 percent over the period from fiscal years 2016 through 2020 and then remain at the higher rate.
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Budget Option
November 20, 2014
Real estate developers who provide rental housing for low-income households may qualify for the low-income housing tax credit, which is designed to encourage investment in affordable housing. The credit covers a portion of the costs incurred for the construction of new housing units, the substantial rehabilitation of existing units, and the purchase of land on which new housing units will be built.