[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2569 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2569

 To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within 
 their borders in lieu of receiving five per centum of the proceeds of 
 the sale of public land lying within said States as provided by their 
                       respective Enabling Acts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 6, 2006

   Mr. Hatch introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within 
 their borders in lieu of receiving five per centum of the proceeds of 
 the sale of public land lying within said States as provided by their 
                       respective Enabling Acts.

    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 ``Action Plan for Public Lands and 
Education Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Western States, as a group, are falling behind in 
        education funding as measured by growth of real per pupil 
        expenditures from 1979 to 1998.
            (2) Eleven of the 12 States with the lowest real growth in 
        per pupil expenditures are Western States.
            (3) The growth rate of real per pupil expenditures in the 
        13 Western States is less than half such rate in the 37 other 
        States (28 percent versus 57 percent).
            (4) On effect of less funding for public education in the 
        West is higher pupil-per-teacher ratios.
            (5) Ten of the twelve States with the largest pupil-per-
        teacher ratios are Western States.
            (6) On average, the 13 Western States have 3 more students 
        per classroom than the 37 other States.
            (7) Over the next 10 years, the rate of enrollment growth 
        is projected to be much higher in Western States than in other 
        States.
            (8) On average, the rate of enrollment growth of Western 
        States is projected to increase dramatically, while the rate of 
        enrollment growth of other States is projected to actually 
        decrease.
            (9) The State and local taxes of Western States as a 
        percentage of personal income are as high as or higher than 
        other States.
            (10) Despite the fact that Western States tax at a 
        comparable rate and allocate as much of their budgets to public 
        education as other States, Western States have lower real 
        growth in per pupil expenditures and have higher pupil-per-
        teacher ratios.
            (11) The Federal Government is the source and potential 
        solver of the problem because of the enormous amount of land 
        the Federal Government owns in Western States.
            (12) All States east of an imaginery vertical line from 
        Montana to New Mexico have, on average, 4.1 percent of their 
        land federally owned, while the Western States on average have 
        51.9 percent of their land federally owned.
            (13) The Acts enabling the people of territories of the 
        American West to form their constitutions and State governments 
        and providing for the admission of such States into the Union 
        on equal footing with the original States, included a common 
        provision of which the following example is typical ``That five 
        per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public land lying 
        within said States, which shall be sold by the United States 
        subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union, after 
        deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid 
        to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest 
        of which only shall be expended for the support of the common 
        schools within said State.''.
            (14) The plain language of these enabling acts proclaims 
        that the public land ``shall be sold by the United States'' 
        subsequent to the admission of the States into the Union.
            (15) The United States honored the foregoing language by 
        selling public land within the Western States until the passage 
        of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, wherein 
        Congress declared that the policy of the United States was to 
        retain public land in Federal ownership and management.
            (16) The United States has broken its solemn compact with 
        the Western States and breached its fiduciary duty to the 
        school children who are designated beneficiaries of the sale of 
        public land under the terms of the respective enabling Acts of 
        the Western States.
            (17) The current shortfall in funding public education in 
        the Western States requires immediate Congressional action to 
        remedy the above-described discriminatory Federal land policy 
        and prevent the further disadvantaging of the school children 
        of the Western States.
            (18) The most efficient and cost effective remedy now 
        available to the United States is to grant to the Western 
        States 5 percent of the remaining federal land located within 
        each State, authorizing each State to select such land from the 
        unappropriated public land of the United States within the 
        boundaries of said State as will satisfy the grant.

SEC. 3. QUANTITY GRANTS TO WESTERN STATES FOR EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT.

    (a) Quantity Land Grants.--Instead of receiving, for the support of 
the common schools, 5 percent of the proceeds of the sales of federally 
owned land lying within the Western States which have not been sold by 
the United States as of July 1, 2005, grants of land are hereby made to 
the Western States. The amount of land granted to each State shall be 
equal to 5 percent of the number of acres of federally owned land 
within the State as of July 1, 2005.
    (b) Selection Process.--
            (1) In general.--Each Western State shall select from the 
        unappropriated public lands within the borders of the State in 
        such manner as the legislature of the State may provide, land 
        equal in acreage to five percent of the federally owned land in 
        the State as of July 1, 2005.
            (2) Calculation of acreage and notification of state.--The 
        Secretary shall calculate the exact acreage of federally owned 
        land in each Western State as of July 1, 2005, and designate 
        the unappropriated public land, as defined herein, eligible for 
        selection by the State. The Secretary shall communicate to each 
        of the Western States the respective acreage calculation and 
        designation of land eligible for selection not later than 1 
        year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (c) Application of Certain Law.--Selection and transfer of land 
under this Act shall not be considered a major Federal action for the 
purposes of section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act 
of 1969.
    (d) Mineral and Oil and Gas Rights.--
            (1) In general.--All mineral, oil, and gas rights to the 
        land selected by the Western States under this Act shall become 
        the property of the relevant Western State unless the Federal 
        lessee of the selected land is making royalty payments to the 
        United States from production of minerals, oil, or gas, 
        whereupon the particular leasehold interest shall remain in the 
        ownership of the United States until the leasehold interest 
        terminates. After that termination, the mineral, oil, and gas 
        rights shall become the property of the relevant Western State.
            (2) Selection of surface rights.--Western States may select 
        only the surface of eligible land if the land is located on 
        subsurface mineral, oil, or gas deposits that are generating 
        royalty payments to the United States. The entire mineral, oil, 
        and gas estate shall become the property of the Western State 
        upon termination of the Federal lease.
    (e) Permanent School Fund.--All land selected by each of the 
Western States shall be held in trust by a State educational agency 
empowered to sell or lease such land, the proceeds of which shall be 
used as a permanent fund, the interest of which shall be expended only 
for the support of public education.
    (f) Definitions.--In this Act:
            (1) The term ``Western States'' means Alaska, Arizona, 
        California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, 
        Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
            (2) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 
        Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as appropriate.
            (3) The term ``State educational agency'' means the agency 
        of the State primarily responsible for the supervision of 
        education.
            (4) The term ``federally owned land'' means all land held 
        in the name of the United States or any agency thereof, 
        including land held in trust, United States military 
        reservations, Indian reservations, and any other land used for 
        Federal purposes.
            (5) The term ``unappropriated public lands'' means any and 
        all land under the management and control of the Bureau of Land 
        Management or United States Forest Service, excluding land that 
        is--
                    (A) held in trust;
                    (B) located within a United States military 
                reservation;
                    (C) a unit of the National Park System;
                    (D) a Wildlife Refuge;
                    (E) a Wilderness Area designated by Congress; or
                    (F) a National Historic Site.
                                 <all>