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S. 921, Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2013 1 (September 11, 2013)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo11344 and id is 1 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
COST ESTIMATE
September 11, 2013
S. 921
Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2013
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
on July 30, 2013
S. 921 would prohibit rental car companies from leasing vehicles that are subject to a safety
recall until the reason for the recall has been fixed. Under current law, the National
Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) within the Department of
Transportation (DOT) has jurisdiction over vehicle safety recalls. The bill would require
NHTSA to complete a study about the effect of the legislation on rental car companies and
to issue new rules to implement the legislation.
Based on information from NHTSA, CBO estimates that implementing S. 921 would cost
$2 million over the 2014-2018 period, subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Because the bill would impose civil penalties on rental car companies that violate the law,
S. 921 could affect revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, CBO
estimates that any penalties collected under the bill would not be significant.
S. 921 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates
Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
The bill would impose private-sector mandates, as defined in UMRA, on rental car
companies because it would prohibit those companies from selling or renting vehicles that
are subject to a safety recall until the defect is fixed. Under the bill, rental car companies
would be required to stop renting such vehicles within 24 or 48 hours of receiving a recall
notice, depending on the size of the fleet that would be affected. Additionally, those
companies would be subject to inspections and reporting requirements. According to
industry sources, the current practices and policies of the rental car companies comprising
most of the industry are consistent with the provisions in the bill. In addition, much of the
industry already tracks the information that would likely be requested under the reporting
requirements. Because such a large share of businesses in the industry already abide by
most of the requirements in the bill, CBO estimates that the incremental cost to comply
with the bill's private-sector mandates would fall below the annual threshold established in
UMRA ($150 million in 2013, adjusted annually for inflation).

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Sarah Puro (for federal costs) and Amy Petz
(for the private-sector impact). The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

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