[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 620 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 620

   To direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey, upon request, 
 certain property in Federal reclamation projects to beneficiaries of 
 the projects and to set forth a distribution scheme for revenues from 
                       reclamation project lands.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

               March 24 (legislative day, March 23), 1995

Mr. Craig (for himself and Mr. Domenici) introduced the following bill; 
   which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey, upon request, 
 certain property in Federal reclamation projects to beneficiaries of 
 the projects and to set forth a distribution scheme for revenues from 
                       reclamation project lands.

    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 ``Reclamation Facilities Transfer 
Act''.

SEC. 2. TRANSFER OF FEDERAL RECLAMATION FACILITIES TO PROJECT 
              BENEFICIARIES.

    Upon request by an eligible project beneficiary and subject to 
valid existing rights, the Secretary shall transfer without 
consideration and at no cost to the project beneficiary all right, 
title, and interest of the United States in and to the reclamation 
project property described pursuant to section 3.

SEC. 3. DESCRIPTION OF RECLAMATION PROJECT PROPERTY ELIGIBLE FOR 
              TRANSFER

    Within ninety days after receiving a request under section 2, the 
Secretary shall prepare and provide to the eligible project 
beneficiary--
            (1) a description of all reclamation project drainage and 
        distribution facilities and related lands;
            (2) a description of all acquired lands, both surface and 
        subsurface estate within the reclamation project; and
            (3) an identification of all outstanding leases on acquired 
        lands associated with the project with respect to which such 
        request is made.

SEC. 4. DISPOSITION OF CERTAIN REVENUES.

    (a) Disposition of Profits of Project Taken Over by Water Users.--
Revenues from whatever source previously collected from project lands 
transferred under section 2 which have been placed in the reclamation 
fund on behalf of the project shall, upon the transfer of such project 
lands, be made immediately available to the project beneficiary under 
the distribution scheme set forth in subsection I of section 4 of the 
Act of December 5, 1924 (43 U.S.C. 501: commonly referred to as the 
``Fact Finders Act of 1924'').
    (b) Leases.--The project beneficiary to whom project lands are 
transferred under section 2 shall be entitled to immediately assume the 
management of all existing leases and shall be entitled to any revenues 
accruing after the date of such transfer from leases on such lands.

SEC 5. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) the term ``eligible project beneficiary'' means the 
        beneficiary of a Federal reclamation project who has operated 
        and maintained Federal reclamation facilities and has repaid 
        all allocated construction costs which are the responsibility 
        of the project beneficiary, whether paid over the term of the 
        contract or prepaid; and
            (2) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 
        Interior.
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