H.R. 4550 would amend, and extend through fiscal year 2030, the authority of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to carry out responsibilities under the United States Grain Standards Act, including the department’s authority to collect and spend fees for overseeing state agencies’ activities related to grain inspections and weight certifications. (The authority to collect fees from state agencies expires at the end of fiscal year 2025.) The bill also would allow USDA to inspect non-export grain that is loaded or unloaded at an export port.

Under current law, those fees are deposited into a fund that is credited with interest on unspent balances. That fund’s balances, including credited interest, may be used without further appropriation to cover the costs associated with overseeing state agencies’ activities related to grain inspections and weight certifications. The bill also would convert the fund to a trust fund, but that change would not have a budgetary effect because the trust fund would not be substantively different from the current fund.

Finally, the bill would authorize the appropriation of $23 million annually over the 2026‑2030 period for the costs of standardization, compliance, and monitoring of related activities. The appropriated amounts also would cover the cost of improving technology for grading grain, reporting to the Congress on any deficiencies or recommendations for improving that technology, and ensuring staffing of the Grain Inspection Advisory Committee.

The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget function 350 (agriculture).

Based on spending patterns for similar activities, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 4550 would cost $113 million over the 2025-2030 period and $2 million after 2030, assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts.

The fees that are collected and subsequently spent by USDA are recorded in the federal budget as direct spending. Because the fees would be spent soon after they are collected, CBO estimates that the net decrease in direct spending from extending the collection of those fees would be negligible in every year and over the 2025-2035 period.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Erik O’Donoghue. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.