Permanent Appropriation of Mobile Home Inspection Fees

The Bureau of Government Financial Operations requested an opinion on whether the language of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1979 constituted a permanent indefinite appropriation of fees collected under the mobile home inspection program. Legislation authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to use the inspection fees to pay the expenses incurred in carrying out the inspections. GAO has held consistently that statutes which authorize the collection of fees and their deposit into a particular fund, and which make the fund available for expenditure for a specified purpose, as constituting continuing or permanent appropriation without further action by Congress. In this case, legislation authorizes the Secretary to collect fees and to use them for a specific purpose. Although the statute does not expressly authorize the establishment of a special fund or the deposit of the receipts into such a fund, such a fund is authorized as a necessary implementation procedure. GAO concluded that the statute in question constituted a permanent indefinite appropriation of fees collected under the inspection program. These funds are to be available to pay the costs of inspection without further action by Congress.