Home > 106th Congressional Bills > H.R. 2389 (ih) To restore stability and predictability to the annual payments made to States and counties containing National Forest System lands and public domain lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for use by the counties for the benefit of p...H.R. 2389 (ih) To restore stability and predictability to the annual payments made to States and counties containing National Forest System lands and public domain lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for use by the counties for the benefit of p...
H.R.2389
One Hundred Sixth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the twenty-fourth day of January, two thousand
An Act
To restore stability and predictability to the annual payments made to
States and counties containing National Forest System lands and public
domain lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for use by the
counties for the benefit of public schools, roads, and other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Secure Rural
Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings and purposes.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Conforming amendment.
TITLE I--SECURE PAYMENTS FOR STATES AND COUNTIES CONTAINING FEDERAL
LANDS
Sec. 101. Determination of full payment amount for eligible States and
counties.
Sec. 102. Payments to States from National Forest Service lands for use
by counties to benefit public education and transportation.
Sec. 103. Payments to counties from Bureau of Land Management lands for
use to benefit public safety, law enforcement, education, and
other public purposes.
TITLE II--SPECIAL PROJECTS ON FEDERAL LANDS
Sec. 201. Definitions.
Sec. 202. General limitation on use of project funds.
Sec. 203. Submission of project proposals.
Sec. 204. Evaluation and approval of projects by Secretary concerned.
Sec. 205. Resource advisory committees.
Sec. 206. Use of project funds.
Sec. 207. Availability of project funds.
Sec. 208. Termination of authority.
TITLE III--COUNTY PROJECTS
Sec. 301. Definitions.
Sec. 302. Use of county funds.
Sec. 303. Termination of authority.
TITLE IV--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 401. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 402. Treatment of funds and revenues.
Sec. 403. Regulations.
Sec. 404. Conforming amendments.
TITLE V--MINERAL REVENUE PAYMENTS CLARIFICATION
Sec. 501. Short title.
Sec. 502. Findings.
Sec. 503. Amendment of the Mineral Leasing Act.
TITLE VI--COMMUNITY FOREST RESTORATION
Sec. 601. Short title.
Sec. 602. Findings.
Sec. 603. Purposes.
Sec. 604. Definitions.
Sec. 605. Establishment of program.
Sec. 606. Selection process.
Sec. 607. Monitoring and evaluation.
Sec. 608. Report.
Sec. 609. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
(1) The National Forest System, which is managed by the United
States Forest Service, was established in 1907 and has grown to
include approximately 192,000,000 acres of Federal lands.
(2) The public domain lands known as revested Oregon and
California Railroad grant lands and the reconveyed Coos Bay Wagon
Road grant lands, which are managed predominantly by the Bureau of
Land Management were returned to Federal ownership in 1916 and 1919
and now comprise approximately 2,600,000 acres of Federal lands.
(3) Congress recognized that, by its decision to secure these
lands in Federal ownership, the counties in which these lands are
situated would be deprived of revenues they would otherwise receive
if the lands were held in private ownership.
(4) These same counties have expended public funds year after
year to provide services, such as education, road construction and
maintenance, search and rescue, law enforcement, waste removal, and
fire protection, that directly benefit these Federal lands and
people who use these lands.
(5) To accord a measure of compensation to the affected
counties for the critical services they provide to both county
residents and visitors to these Federal lands, Congress determined
that the Federal Government should share with these counties a
portion of the revenues the United States receives from these
Federal lands.
(6) Congress enacted in 1908 and subsequently amended a law
that requires that 25 percent of the revenues derived from National
Forest System lands be paid to States for use by the counties in
which the lands are situated for the benefit of public schools and
roads.
(7) Congress enacted in 1937 and subsequently amended a law
that requires that 75 percent of the revenues derived from the
revested and reconveyed grant lands be paid to the counties in
which those lands are situated to be used as are other county
funds, of which 50 percent is to be used as other county funds.
(8) For several decades primarily due to the growth of the
Federal timber sale program, counties dependent on and supportive
of these Federal lands received and relied on increasing shares of
these revenues to provide funding for schools and road maintenance.
(9) In recent years, the principal source of these revenues,
Federal timber sales, has been sharply curtailed and, as the volume
of timber sold annually from most of the Federal lands has
decreased precipitously, so too have the revenues shared with the
affected counties.
(10) This decline in shared revenues has affected educational
funding and road maintenance for many counties.
(11) In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, Congress
recognized this trend and ameliorated its adverse consequences by
providing an alternative annual safety net payment to 72 counties
in Oregon, Washington, and northern California in which Federal
timber sales had been restricted or prohibited by administrative
and judicial decisions to protect the northern spotted owl.
(12) The authority for these particular safety net payments is
expiring and no comparable authority has been granted for
alternative payments to counties elsewhere in the United States
that have suffered similar losses in shared revenues from the
Federal lands and in the funding for schools and roads those
revenues provide.
(13) There is a need to stabilize education and road
maintenance funding through predictable payments to the affected
counties, job creation in those counties, and other opportunities
associated with restoration, maintenance, and stewardship of
Federal lands.
(14) Both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management
face significant backlogs in infrastructure maintenance and
ecosystem restoration that are difficult to address through annual
appropriations.
(15) There is a need to build new, and strengthen existing,
relationships and to improve management of public lands and waters.
(b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are as follows:
(1) To stabilize payments to counties to provide funding for
schools and roads that supplements other available funds.
(2) To make additional investments in, and create additional
employment opportunities through, projects that improve the
maintenance of existing infrastructure, implement stewardship
objectives that enhance forest ecosystems, and restore and improve
land health and water quality. Such projects shall enjoy broad-
based support with objectives that may include, but are not limited
to--
(A) road, trail, and infrastructure maintenance or
obliteration;
(B) soil productivity improvement;
(C) improvements in forest ecosystem health;
(D) watershed restoration and maintenance;
(E) restoration, maintenance and improvement of wildlife
and fish habitat;
(F) control of noxious and exotic weeds; and
(G) reestablishment of native species.
(3) To improve cooperative relationships among the people that
use and care for Federal lands and the agencies that manage these
lands.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Federal lands.--The term ``Federal lands'' means--
(A) lands within the National Forest System, as defined in
section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources
Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)) exclusive of the
National Grasslands and land utilization projects designated as
National Grasslands administered pursuant to the Act of July
22, 1937 (7 U.S.C. 1010-1012); and
(B) such portions of the revested Oregon and California
Railroad and reconveyed Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands as are
or may hereafter come under the jurisdiction of the Department
of the Interior, which have heretofore or may hereafter be
classified as timberlands, and power-site lands valuable for
timber, that shall be managed, except as provided in the former
section 3 of the Act of August 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 875; 43
U.S.C. 1181c), for permanent forest production.
(2) Eligibility period.--The term ``eligibility period'' means
fiscal year 1986 through fiscal year 1999.
(3) Eligible county.--The term ``eligible county'' means a
county that received 50-percent payments for one or more fiscal
years of the eligibility period or a county that received a portion
of an eligible State's 25-percent payments for one or more fiscal
years of the eligibility period. The term includes a county
established after the date of the enactment of this Act so long as
the county includes all or a portion of a county described in the
preceding sentence.
(4) Eligible state.--The term ``eligible State'' means a State
that received 25-percent payments for one or more fiscal years of
the eligibility period.
(5) Full payment amount.--The term ``full payment amount''
means the amount calculated for each eligible State and eligible
county under section 101.
(6) 25-percent payment.--The term ``25-percent payment'' means
the payment to States required by the sixth paragraph under the
heading of ``FOREST SERVICE'' in the Act of May 23, 1908 (35 Stat.
260; 16 U.S.C. 500), and section 13 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (36
Stat. 963; 16 U.S.C. 500).
(7) 50-percent payment.--The term ``50-percent payment'' means
the payment that is the sum of the 50-percent share otherwise paid
to a county pursuant to title II of the Act of August 28, 1937
(chapter 876; 50 Stat. 875; 43 U.S.C. 1181f), and the payment made
to a county pursuant to the Act of May 24, 1939 (chapter 144; 53
Stat. 753; 43 U.S.C. 1181f-1 et seq.).
(8) Safety net payments.--The term ``safety net payments''
means the special payment amounts paid to States and counties
required by section 13982 or 13983 of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-66; 16 U.S.C. 500 note;
43 U.S.C. 1181f note).
SEC. 4. CONFORMING AMENDMENT.
Section 6903(a)(1)(C) of title 31, United States Code, is amended
by inserting after ``(16 U.S.C. 500)'' the following: ``or the Secure
Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000''.
TITLE I--SECURE PAYMENTS FOR STATES AND COUNTIES CONTAINING FEDERAL
LANDS
SEC. 101. DETERMINATION OF FULL PAYMENT AMOUNT FOR ELIGIBLE STATES AND
COUNTIES.
(a) Calculation Required.--
(1) Eligible states.--For fiscal years 2001 through 2006, the
Secretary of the Treasury shall calculate for each eligible State
that received a 25-percent payment during the eligibility period an
amount equal to the average of the three highest 25-percent
payments and safety net payments made to that eligible State for
the fiscal years of the eligibility period.
(2) Bureau of land management counties.--For fiscal years 2001
through 2006, the Secretary of the Treasury shall calculate for
each eligible county that received a 50-percent payment during the
eligibility period an amount equal to the average of the three
highest 50-percent payments and safety net payments made to that
eligible county for the fiscal years of the eligibility period.
(b) Annual Adjustment.--For each fiscal year in which payments are
required to be made to eligible States and eligible counties under this
title, the Secretary of the Treasury shall adjust the full payment
amount for the previous fiscal year for each eligible State and
eligible county to reflect 50 percent of the changes in the consumer
price index for rural areas (as published in the Bureau of Labor
Statistics) that occur after publication of that index for fiscal year
2000.
SEC. 102. PAYMENTS TO STATES FROM NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS FOR USE
BY COUNTIES TO BENEFIT PUBLIC EDUCATION AND
TRANSPORTATION.
(a) Payment Amounts.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall pay an
eligible State the sum of the amounts elected under subsection (b) by
each eligible county for either--
(1) the 25-percent payment under the Act of May 23, 1908 (16
U.S.C. 500), and section 13 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (16 U.S.C.
500); or
(2) the full payment amount in place of the 25-percent payment.
(b) Election To Receive Payment Amount.--
(1) Election; submission of results.--The election to receive
either the full payment amount or the 25-percent payment shall be
made at the discretion of each affected county and transmitted to
the Secretary by the Governor of a State.
(2) Duration of election.--A county election to receive the 25-
percent payment shall be effective for two fiscal years. When a
county elects to receive the full payment amount, such election
shall be effective for all the subsequent fiscal years through
fiscal year 2006.
(3) Source of payment amounts.--The payment to an eligible
State under this section for a fiscal year shall be derived from
any revenues, fees, penalties, or miscellaneous receipts, exclusive
of deposits to any relevant trust fund, or special accounts,
received by the Federal Government from activities by the Forest
Service on the Federal lands described in section 3(1)(A) and to
the extent of any shortfall, out of any funds in the Treasury not
otherwise appropriated.
(c) Distribution and Expenditure of Payments.--
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