[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4309 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4309

      To amend the Sikes Act to make certain improvements to the 
administration of cooperative agreements for land management related to 
  Department of Defense readiness activities, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 26, 2014

 Ms. Bordallo introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
  Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on 
   Armed Services, 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 amend the Sikes Act to make certain improvements to the 
administration of cooperative agreements for land management related to 
  Department of Defense readiness 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. COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS UNDER SIKES ACT FOR LAND MANAGEMENT 
              RELATED TO DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE READINESS ACTIVITIES.

    (a) Multiyear Agreements To Fund Long-Term Management.--Subsection 
(b) of section 103A of the Sikes Act (16 U.S.C. 670c-1) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``Funds''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2) In the case of a cooperative agreement under subsection 
(a)(2), funds referred to in paragraph (1)--
            ``(A) may be paid in a lump sum and include an amount 
        intended to cover the future costs of the natural resource 
        maintenance and improvement activities provided for under the 
        agreement;
            ``(B) may be invested by the recipient in accordance with 
        the recipient's own guidelines for the management and 
        investment of financial assets, and any interest or income 
        derived from such investment may be applied for the same 
        purposes as the principal; and
            ``(C) may be used only for payment of--
                    ``(i) direct costs of maintenance and improvement 
                of natural resources on the lands within the scope of 
                the agreement; and
                    ``(ii) indirect and administrative costs, as 
                determined in accordance with official guidance issued 
                by the Office of Management and Budget, but not to 
                exceed 10 percent of the total cost of the project.''.
    (b) Availability of Funds and Relation to Other Laws.--Subsection 
(c) of such section is amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) Availability of Funds and Relation to Other Laws.--(1) 
Cooperative agreements and interagency agreements entered into under 
this section shall be subject to the availability of funds.
    ``(2) Notwithstanding chapter 63 of title 31, United States Code, a 
cooperative agreement under this section may be used to acquire 
property or services for the direct benefit or use of the United States 
Government.
    ``(3) Amounts available to the Department of Defense may not be 
used under this Act to acquire fee title interest in real property for 
natural resources projects that are not on a military installation.''.
    (c) Audit.--The Inspector General of the Department of Defense 
shall conduct an audit of the natural resources projects funded with 
amounts available to the Department of Defense under the Sikes Act, as 
amended by this section, that is not on a military installation. Not 
later than October 1, 2018, the Inspector General shall submit to 
Congress a report on the audit conducted under this subsection.
    (d) Sunset.--This section and the provisions of law enacted by the 
amendments made by this section shall expire on October 1, 2019, except 
that any cooperative agreement referred to in such provisions that is 
entered into on or before September 30, 2019, shall continue according 
to its terms and conditions as if this section has not expired.
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