Melissa Merrell

H.R. 3086 would make permanent a moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access and some taxes on electronic commerce. Under current law, the moratorium is set to expire on November 1, 2014.

Congressional Budget Office estimates that enacting H.R. 3086 would have no impact on the federal budget, but beginning in 2014, it would impose significant annual costs on some state and local governments. The bill would not affect federal direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

By permanently prohibiting state and local government from collecting certain types of taxes, H.R. 3086 would impose an intergovernmental mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA).

CBO estimates that the mandate would cause some state and local governments to lose revenue beginning in November 2014; those losses would exceed the threshold established in UMRA for intergovernmental mandates ($76 million in 2014, adjusted annually for inflation) beginning in 2015.

CBO estimates that the direct costs to states and local governments would probably total more than several hundred million dollars annually.

The National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (H.R. 3696) would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct cybersecurity activities on behalf of the federal government and would codify the role of DHS in preventing and responding to cybersecurity incidents involving the Information Technology (IT) systems of federal civilian agencies and critical infrastructure in the United States.

Although DHS currently conducts many of the activities covered by H.R. 3696 and has received approximately $800 million so far in fiscal year 2014 for its cybersecurity activities, some provisions in the bill would expand existing programs, provide additional authorities, or add new requirements beyond the agency’s current efforts.

Assuming the appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost an additional $160 million over the 2015-2019 period. Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation because it would not affect direct spending or revenues. H.R. 3696 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA).