Criminal Law Library Blog
October 16, 2026 – Cost Estimate.
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 16, 2026
H.R. 5967 would direct the Federal Trade Commission to convene an interagency task force to devise a strategy to combat scams targeting consumers. The strategy would consider how to coordinate federal, private-sector, and international partners’ efforts to reduce financial losses from scams and to help consumers recover from such losses. The bill also would require the task force to report its findings to the Congress.
Based on the cost of similar task forces and reporting activities, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 5967 would cost $2 million over the 2027‑2031 period. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Two of the agencies that would be part of the task force, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), are authorized to collect fees each year to offset their annual appropriation; CBO expects that the net effect on spending subject to appropriation for those agencies over the 2027-2031 period would be negligible, assuming appropriation actions consistent with that authority.
The Postal Service (USPS) also would be part of the task force established under the bill. However, CBO expects that the USPS will exhaust both its borrowing authority and its reserve funds in 2027. As a result, to the extent that enacting the requirements in H.R. 5967 requires additional spending out of the Postal Service Fund, CBO expects that additional spending would be exactly offset by spending cuts on other postal activities and result in no change in overall spending.
If the SEC or the FCC increased fees to offset the costs of implementing provisions in H.R. 5967, the cost of an existing private-sector mandate on entities required to pay those fees would increase as well. CBO estimates that the incremental cost of the mandate would be small and would fall well below the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act for private-sector mandates ($214 million in 2026, adjusted annually for inflation).
The bill would not impose any intergovernmental mandates.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are David Rafferty (for federal costs) and Rachel Austin (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel
Director, Congressional Budget Office