[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5223 Introduced in House (IH)]
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5223
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a pilot program to
evaluate the feasibility and merits of State administration of units of
the National Forest System.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 20, 2000
Mr. Sanford introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Agriculture
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a pilot program to
evaluate the feasibility and merits of State administration of units of
the National Forest System.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``National Forests Improvement Pilot
Program Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DEFINITIONS.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) National forest management costs taxpayers over
$2,000,000,000 per year.
(2) The Forest Service has failed in four General
Accounting Office audits to account for how it spent hundreds
of millions of taxpayer dollars in the 1990's, and the General
Accounting Office has listed the Forest Service as being at
``high risk'' of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement.
(3) Over 54,000,000 acres of Forest Service land are
currently at risk of catastrophic fire.
(4) In States where environmental audits are performed,
typically States are shown to have a better performance record
on the forest lands they manage than the Forest Service has on
the lands the Forest Service manages.
(5) At the same time, most States are required by law to
show a return from State-owned forest lands.
(b) Definitions.--In this Act:
(1) Council.--The term ``Council'' means the Forest
Stewardship Council.
(2) Test forest.--The term ``test forest'' means a unit of
the National Forest System included in the pilot program.
(3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Agriculture.
SEC. 3. PILOT PROGRAM OF STATE ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM
LANDS.
(a) Program Required; Purpose.--The Secretary shall carry out a
pilot program in three Forest Service regions to evaluate whether State
governments can manage and improve National Forest System lands more
effectively and efficiently than the Forest Service and reduce Federal
expenditures for the National Forest System. The Secretary shall ensure
that the Forest Service regions selected represent three different
forest ecosystems.
(b) Contracts With States.--The Secretary shall enter into a
contract with one State in each Forest Service region selected for the
pilot program under which the State will assume management of one unit
of the National Forest System in that State on behalf of the Secretary.
(c) Applicable Laws.--The Federal and State laws applicable to a
test forest as a unit of the National Forest System shall continue to
apply to the test forest notwithstanding State administration of the
test forest under the pilot program, except that the State is not
required to follow the standard operating procedures and guidelines
contained in the Forest Service handbook.
(d) Treatment of Forest Service Employees.--Subchapter VI of
chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, shall apply with respect to
any employee of the Forest Service who is assigned to duty in a test
forest under a contract entered into under subsection (b). For purposes
of section 3373 of such title, an employee so assigned shall be deemed
to be on detail to a regular work assignment in the Forest Service, as
provided in subsection (a)(1) of such section.
SEC. 4. TEST FOREST EVALUATION.
(a) Forest Stewardship Council Contract.--The Secretary shall enter
into a contract with the Forest Stewardship Council under which the
Council shall evaluate the test forests every two years during the
course of the pilot program to assess the environmental progress of the
test forests under State management. The assessment of environmental
progress shall be based on criteria established by the Council not
later than six months after the date of the enactment of this Act and
revised thereafter as the Council considers necessary.
(b) Report.--The Council shall submit to Congress a report
containing the results each biannual evaluation of the test forests'
environmental progress of such lands.
(c) Early Termination of Pilot Program.--Notwithstanding section 6,
if the Council finds that the environmental progress of a test forest
is worsening based on the criteria established under subsection (a),
the Secretary shall terminate the pilot program with respect to that
test forest. The State managing the test forest under the pilot program
shall return the test forest to Federal management and return all
unobligated funds received by the State under section 5 to manage the
test forest.
SEC. 5. FUNDING.
(a) Use of Forest Service Funds.--The Secretary shall carry out the
pilot program by reserving those funds appropriated for the operations
of the Forest Service that would be used for the management of the test
forests in the absence of the pilot program. In anticipation of the
more efficient management of the test forests under the pilot program,
the Secretary shall incrementally reduce the amount reserved for each
test forest from the amount expended for the test forest during fiscal
year 2000 to 50 percent of that amount over 10 years.
(b) Revenues.--A State may keep the revenues it receives from the
management of a test forest for continued management of those lands,
except that the sixth paragraph under the heading ``FOREST SERVICE'' in
the Act of May 23, 1908, and section 13 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (16
U.S.C. 500), shall continue to apply to such revenues.
SEC. 6. DURATION OF PILOT PROGRAM.
Subject to section 4(c), the Secretary shall carry out the pilot
program over a 10-fiscal year period. After consultation with the
Council, the Secretary may extend the pilot program for an additional
10 years.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line