[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2920 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2920

 To expedite procedures for hazardous fuels reductions activities and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 10, 2002

  Mr. Baucus introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To expedite procedures for hazardous fuels reductions activities 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. EXPEDITED HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION PROCEDURES.

    (a) In General.--The Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior 
shall conduct immediately and to completion projects consistent with 
the Implementation Plan for the 10-year Comprehensive Strategy for a 
Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities 
and the Environment, dated May 2002, developed pursuant to the 
Conference Report to the Department of the Interior and Related 
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 (House Report 106-646) to reduce 
hazardous fuels. Any project carried out pursuant to this section shall 
be consistent with the applicable forest plan, resource management 
plan, or other applicable agency plans.
    (b) Priority.--In implementing projects under this section, the 
Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior shall give highest priority 
to--
            (1) wildland urban interface areas;
            (2) municipal watersheds; or
            (3) forested or rangeland areas affected by disease, insect 
        activity, or wind throw.
    (c) Acreage Limitation.--In implementing this section, the 
Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior shall treat an aggregate 
area of not more than 3.75 million acres of federal land.
    (d) Process.--The Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior shall 
jointly develop a collaborative process with interested parties 
consistent with the Implementation Plan described in subsection (a) for 
the selection of projects carried out under this section consistent 
with subsection (b). Such collaborative process may be the process set 
forth in title II of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-
Determination Act, Public Law 106-393.
    (e) Administrative Process.--
            (1) Review.--Projects implemented pursuant to this section 
        shall not be subject to appeal requirements of the Appeals 
        Reform Act (section 322 of Public Law 102-381) or Department of 
        the Interior Board of Land Appeals Review.
            (2) Regulations.--The Secretaries of Agriculture and the 
        Interior, as appropriate, may promulgate such regulations as 
        are necessary to implement this section.
    (f) Conclusive Presumption.--Subject to the requirements of 
subsection (h), unless there are extraordinary circumstances, hazardous 
fuels reduction actions authorized by subsection (g) are conclusively 
determined to be categorically excluded from further analysis under the 
National Environmental Policy Act, and the Secretary of Agriculture or 
the Secretary of the Interior as appropriate need not make any findings 
as to whether the projects individually or cumulatively have a 
significant effect on the human environment.
    (g) Categorical Exclusions.--
            (1) Subject to paragraph (2), until September 30, 2003, the 
        Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior may 
        categorically exclude a proposed hazardous fuels reduction 
        action, including prescribed fire, from documentation in an 
        environmental impact statement or environmental assessment if 
        the proposed hazardous fuels reduction action is located on 
        lands identified as condition class 3 on the map attached to 
        the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station General 
        Technical Report RMRS-87 dated April 2002 and removes no more 
        than 250,000 board feet of merchantable wood products or 
        removes as salvage 1,000,000 board feet or less of merchantable 
        wood products and assures regeneration of harvested or salvaged 
        areas.
            (2) Scoping is required on all actions proposed pursuant to 
        this section.
    (h) Limitation on the Availability of Conclusive Presumption.-- The 
conclusive presumption authorized by subsection (f) shall apply only to 
projects located in areas identified as condition class 3 as defined in 
subsection (g), and that are located:
            (1) within wildland urban interface areas, or
            (2) within a municipal watershed, or
            (3) within forested or rangeland areas affected by disease, 
        insect activity, or wind throw.
    (i) Extraordinary Circumstances.-- For all projects implemented 
pursuant to this section, if there are extraordinary circumstances, the 
Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall follow 
agency procedures related to categorical exclusions and extraordinary 
circumstances.
    (j) Reduce Fire Risk.-- In order to ensure that the agencies are 
implementing projects that reduce the risk of unnaturally intense 
wildfires, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the 
Interior--
            (1) shall not construct new roads as part of any project 
        implemented pursuant to this section;
            (2) must maintain old and large trees appropriate for each 
        ecosystem type and must focus on generally small diameter trees 
        and brush for all projects implemented pursuant to this 
        section; and
            (3) must deposit in the Treasury of the United States all 
        revenues and receipts generated from projects implemented 
        pursuant to this section.
    (k) Hazardous Fuels Reduction Funding Focus.-- In order to focus 
hazardous fuels reduction activities on the highest priority areas 
where critical issues of human safety and property loss are the most 
serious, the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior shall 
expend all of the hazardous fuels operations funds provided in this Act 
only on projects in areas identified as condition class 3 as defined in 
subsection (g).
    (l) Small Communities.-- At least ten percent of the hazardous 
fuels operations funds provided in this Act shall be spent on projects 
that benefit businesses that use hazardous fuels and that are located 
in small, economically disadvantaged communities.
    (m) Monitoring.--
            (1) The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the 
        Interior shall jointly establish a commission to complete an 
        assessment of the positive or negative impacts and 
        effectiveness of projects implemented pursuant to this Act. The 
        commission shall be composed of 12 to 15 members with equal 
        representation from conservation interests, local communities, 
        and commodity interests. The Commission shall submit a report 
        to Congress within 24 months after the date of enactment of 
        this Act.
            (2) The Secretaries shall establish a multiparty monitoring 
        process in order to assess a representative sampling of the 
        projects implemented pursuant to this section. The Secretaries 
        shall include any interested individual or organization in the 
        monitoring and evaluation process.
            (3) Funds to implement this subsection shall be derived 
        from hazardous fuels reduction funds.
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