[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3759 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3759

  To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to grant economy-related 
contract extensions of a certain timber contracts between the Secretary 
     of the Interior and timber purchasers, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 8, 2009

Mr. DeFazio (for himself, Mr. Rehberg, and Mr. Schrader) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to grant economy-related 
contract extensions of a certain timber contracts between the Secretary 
     of the Interior and timber purchasers, 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 ``BLM Contract Extension Act''.

SEC. 2. ECONOMY-RELATED CONTRACT EXTENSIONS.

    (a) Request.--Not later than 30 days after a timber purchaser 
requests an economy-related contract extension of a qualifying contract 
between the Secretary of the Interior and the timber purchaser, the 
Secretary shall modify the qualifying contract to add 3 years to the 
contract expiration date.
    (b) Waiver of Claims as of Extension.--The timber purchaser shall 
waive any and all claims it has against the United States involving the 
qualifying contract that exist on the date that the Secretary modifies 
the qualifying contract under subsection (a).
    (c) Claims Prior to Date of Extension.--Nothing in this Act shall 
affect any claim by the United States against any timber purchaser, 
including those claims that arose under a qualifying contract before 
the date on which the Secretary extends the contract expiration date 
under subsection (a).
    (d) Definitions.--For the purposes of this section, the following 
definitions apply:
            (1) Economy-related contract extension.--The term 
        ``economy-related contract extension'' means the addition of 3 
        years to the qualifying contract's expiration date for the 
        right to cut and remove timber.
            (2) Qualifying contract.--The term ``qualifying contract'' 
        means a contract, executed on or before December 31, 2008, for 
        the sale of timber from lands administered by the Bureau of 
        Land Management--
                    (A) for which there is unharvested volume 
                remaining;
                    (B) for which, not later than 90 days after the 
                date of the enactment of this Act, the timber purchaser 
                makes a written request to the Secretary for an 
                economic related contract extension; and
                    (C) that has not been terminated prior to the 
                request for an economic related contract extension 
                under subsection (a).
            (3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of 
        Land Management.
            (4) Timber purchaser.--The term ``timber purchaser'' means 
        the party to the qualifying contract for the sale of timber 
        from lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
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