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H.R. 5510, FTC Process and Transparency Reform Act of 2016 1 (September 9, 2016)

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                  CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
                             COST ESTIMATE

                                                                September 9, 2016


                                  H.R. 5510
            FTC Process and Transparency Reform Act of 2016

As ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on July 14, 2016


H.R. 5510 would make several changes to how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
conducts its investigations and issues new rules and would increase the agency's annual
reporting requirements. Specifically, the bill would codify the definition of substantial
injury used to determine which acts or practices the agency can declare unlawful, require
the agency to consider the costs of regulation weighed against the injury caused by the act
or practice when making such a determination, and expand the type of information
defendants can use as evidence in cases brought by the FTC. H.R. 5510 also would require
the FTC, when providing recommendations of proposed regulations, to publish its
economic analysis of such regulations unless certain criteria are met. Lastly, the bill would
require the FTC to publish an annual plan describing its anticipated activities for the year
and an annual report on the status of its enforcement actions pertaining to elder fraud.

On the basis of information from the FTC, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 5510
would increase the agency's administrative costs by less than $500,000 annually. That
increase in spending by the FTC, which would be subject to the availability of appropriated
funds, would support two or three additional staff that CBO expects would be needed to
comply with new annual reporting requirements.

A portion of the amount that the FTC collects in civil monetary penalties is remitted to the
Treasury and is recorded as revenues. By changing procedures for how the FTC initiates
and litigates violations of its rules, CBO expects that enacting H.R. 5510 could decrease
those revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that
any such decrease would be insignificant because of the small number of cases that CBO
estimates would be affected by the changes. Enacting the bill would not affect direct
spending.

CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5510 would not increase net direct spending or
on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.

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