Equal Justice For United States Military Personnel Legislation - Congressional Budget Office Costings

Congressional Budget Office Costings

The United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a cost estimate on October 22, 2008, regarding the Equal Justice for United States Military Personnel Act of 2007, S.2052, 110th Congress. The CBO estimated costs to be approximately $1 million a year if S.2052 was enacted which would include the workload of Department of Defense attorneys and Supreme Court clerks. Further it estimates a possible additional $1 million to $2 million in appropriated funds for the Department of Defense to defend a case in the Supreme Court if a servicemember petitioned the high court for a writ of certiorari. However, the CBO determined that by enacting S.2052 there would be no direct spending and it would impose no costs on local, state or tribal governments.

On October 27, 2008, the Press-Enterprise noted in an article that the cost to the average family if S.2052 was enacted would be $0.16. On the topic of costs related to an increase in workload, the American Bar Association stated in a letter to House leaders that "to those that argue that permitting equal access to the courts will create workload problems, we emphatically respond that nothing is more important than the provision of fundamental due process to our service members."

The military justice blog CAAFlog.com reported on October 27, 2008, that the CBO estimate "makes highly dubious claims." The blog estimates costs to be in the neighborhood of $20,000 or 1/100th the high-end figure provided by the CBO cost estimate. The blog argues that the additional $1 million to $2 million cost estimate is "outlandish" because it ignores the current practice regime. Finally, the article suspects that the "DOD wants to kill the bill, so it puffed up its likely cost."

On June 11, 2009, Washington, DC attorney Dwight H. Sullivan testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee that the costs, should HR 569 (111th Congress) be passed, would be approximately $1,000 per case.

On February 2, 2010, the CBO issued a cost estimate on HR 569. The CBO's estimate indicates that "Based on information provided by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Supreme Court, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would increase the workload of DoD attorneys and Supreme Court clerks and would cost less than $1 million each year, assuming the availability of appropriated funds. We expect that the bill would make several hundred service members eligible to file petitions each year, but that only a small portion of those individuals would pursue review by the Supreme Court (based on the experience of individuals whose cases currently qualify for Supreme Court review). CBO cannot predict whether the Supreme Court would grant review of any particular petition. If the Supreme Court agreed to review any petitions, DoD would probably spend no more than $1 million in any year from appropriated funds to defend those cases. (Any such amounts would depend on the number and complexity of such cases.) Enacting H.R. 569 would not affect direct spending or revenues." The February 2010 estimate was considerably less in estimated costs compared to the previous CBO estimate in 2008.