[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>