H.R. 1450, OFAC Licensure for Investigators Act

H.R. 1450 would require the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to establish a pilot program under which it could license private firms to conduct small financial transactions with sanctioned entities in order to collect data and intelligence on those entities. Those transactions might otherwise be prohibited because some parties to the transactions are subject to sanctions. The bill would require OFAC to report to the Congress on its implementation of that program. The authority to issue licenses and the reporting requirement would expire five years after OFAC begins issuing those licenses.

Based on information from OFAC, CBO expects the office would need five employees to implement and administer the pilot program starting in fiscal year 2026. CBO estimates the compensation and operating expenses for those employees and the cost of the reporting requirements would amount to $5 million over the 2025-2035 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Emma Uebelhor. The estimate was reviewed by Christina Hawley Anthony, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.