[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5748 Introduced in House (IH)]






107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5748

To protect public assets, natural heritage, and native biodiversity on 
 Federal public lands by banning all further degradation, development, 
         and extraction on such lands, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 14, 2002

 Ms. McKinney introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
     Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committees on 
Agriculture, and Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To protect public assets, natural heritage, and native biodiversity on 
 Federal public lands by banning all further degradation, development, 
         and extraction on such lands, and for 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.

     This Act may be cited as the ``Public Lands Forever Wild Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
    
            (1) The Constitution of the State of New York (Article XIV, 
        Section I) contains a prohibition on extraction on State-owned 
        public lands, which has served the State and its citizens well 
        and is a good model for the management of the approximately 
        650,000,000 acres of Federal public lands.
            (2) The Federal agencies responsible for the management of 
        these Federal public lands, primarily the Forest Service of the 
        Department of Agriculture, the United States Fish and Wildlife 
        Service and Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the 
        Interior, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, currently permit 
        massive corporate extraction on the vast majority of these 
        public lands without accounting for the other assets of these 
        lands.
            (3) With little or no accounting, let alone honest and 
        fully-costed accounting, vast areas of these Federal public 
        lands, and the rivers and streams and other resources on these 
        lands, are being taken, liquidated, or despoiled by private 
        industry at great, but unaccounted for, public expense.
            (4) The economic benefits of this coporate extraction are 
        out-weighed by the costs and risks to the public, including 
        risks to human health, welfare, and survivability.
            (5) National Forest System lands, a component of the 
        Federal public lands, serve as the source of 80 percent of 
        America's fresh drinking water.
            (6) These forests and other Federal public lands produce 
        much of America's topsoil, replenish oxygen and water, moderate 
        weather, climate, and flooding.
            (7) Surveys indicate that at least 80 percent of the 
        American public believes that National Forest System lands are 
        protected in the same manner and to the same extent as national 
        parks and wants the Federal public lands, and the rivers and 
        streams and other resources on these lands, protected from 
        harm.
            (8) The Federal public lands should be fully and completely 
        protected from all further development and harm and should not 
        be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, 
        public or private, and the timber, grazing browse, minerals, 
        oil and gas, and other resource on these lands should not be 
        sold, removed or destroyed.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITIONS ON COMMERCIAL EXTRACTION ON FEDERAL PUBLIC LANDS.

    (a) Protection of Public Lands.--Federal public lands shall be 
fully and completely protected from all further development and harm, 
including zero tree cutting, zero road building, zero logging, zero 
mining, zero grazing, zero drilling, zero water degradation, zero 
motorized trail development, zero motorized recreation area 
development, zero building of commercial recreational buildings, zero 
allowance of new commercial recreation areas and developments, zero 
water diversions and zero dams, and no exceptions may be made to these 
prohibitions. Federal public lands shall not be leased, sold, or 
exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall 
the timber, grazing browse, minerals, oil and gas, water, or any other 
resource thereon be sold, removed, or destroyed.
    (b) Public Lands Defined.--In this Act, the term ``Federal public 
lands'' means all federally-owned lands and waters, now owned or 
hereafter acquired, within all National Parks, National Forests, 
National Grasslands, National Monuments, National Wildlife Refuges, 
Bureau of Land Management lands, Army Corps of Engineers lands, 
Tennessee Valley Authority Lands, and National Wilderness Areas.
    (c) Other Management Requirements.--
            (1) Roads.--All roads on all Federal public lands shall be 
        inventoried, a determination shall be made of those which are 
        essential and those unnecessary. Based upon the inventory 
        determination, essential roads shall be identified and 
        maintained and all others shall be obliterated and revegetated 
        within 10 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
            (2) Inventories.--The Federal agencies having jurisdiction 
        over Federal public lands shall prepare an inventory of all 
        Federal public lands by acre, roads, rivers, and streams by 
        mile. The inventory shall include a description of the status 
        and condition of the lands and a recommendation of what can or 
        should be done to restore natural conditions on the lands. The 
        inventory and recommendations shall be completed within two 
        years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (d) Fires, Insects, Disease, and Other Natural Forces.--Fires, 
insects, disease and other natural destructive forces shall all be 
considered acts of nature and part of a healthy, functioning, and wild 
ecosystem. No further attempts to correct for such acts of nature shall 
occur on Federal public lands.
    (e) Enforcement.--
            (1) Purpose and finding.--The purpose of this subsection is 
        to foster the widest possible enforcement of this section. 
        Congress finds that all people of the United States are injured 
        by violations of these prohibitions on Federal public lands.
            (2) Federal enforcement.--The provisions of this section 
        shall be enforced by the Federal agencies having jurisdiction 
        over Federal public lands and by the Attorney General of the 
        United States against any person who violates this Act.
            (3) Citizen suits.--Any citizen harmed by a violation of 
        this section may enforce this section by bringing an action for 
        declaratory judgment, temporary restraining order, injunction, 
        statutory damages, and other remedies against any alleged 
        violator, including the United States, in any district court of 
        the United States.
            (4) Standard of proof.--The standard of proof in all 
        actions brought under this subsection shall be the 
        preponderance of the evidence and the trial shall be de novo.
            (5) Damage award.--The court, after determining a violation 
        of this section, shall impose a damage award of not less than 
        $5,000 nor more than 1,000 times the value of the damaged or 
        lost public assets, shall issue one or more injunctions and 
        other equitable relief, and shall award to the plaintiffs 
        reasonable costs of the litigation, including attorney's fees, 
        witness fees, and other necessary expenses. The court shall 
        have the authority to order seizure and forfeiture of all 
        assets, including corporate assets, belonging to the violator 
        involved in any way in the commission of the violation. The 
        damage award shall be paid by the violator or violators 
        designated by the court to the United States Treasury. The 
        damage award shall be paid from the United States Treasury, as 
        provided by Congress under section 1304 of title 31, United 
        States Code, within 40 days after judgment to the person or 
        persons designated to receive it, to be applied in protecting 
        or restoring native biodiversity in or adjoining Federal public 
        lands. Any award of costs of litigation and any award of 
        attorney fees shall be paid within 40 days after judgment.
            (6) Waiver.--The United States, including its agents and 
        employees, waives its sovereign immunity in all respects in all 
        actions under this subsection. No notice is required to enforce 
        this section.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

     This Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
                                 <all>