[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 138 (Saturday, October 28, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ALASKA LANDS EXCHANGE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 26, 2000

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I wish to provide this 
clarification of legislative intent to Section 761 of H.R. 1000, the 
FAA Reauthorization bill, P.L. 106-181, enacted earlier this year.
  Section 761 provides a process for land exchanges to facilitate a 
railroad track realignment and straightening project through Elmendorf 
AFB and Fort Richardson, Alaska. Track is to be relocated further away 
from the runway landing clear zone, ammunition storage areas, and other 
military facilities. It will also provide safety and operational 
benefits for the combined passenger and freight rail line. The small 
land parcel segments that need to be exchanged on a nearly acre-for-
acre basis will be between the state-owned Alaska Railroad on the one 
part, and the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretaries of the Army, 
Air Force, or such other federal agencies as may be necessary, on the 
other part.
  Of course, it is the intent of Section 761 that matters needed to 
facilitate these land exchanges between the federal agencies and the 
state railroad, as well as the overall purposes of this project, are 
necessarily implied therein. For example, it will obviously be 
necessary on a temporary basis during surveying, preliminary 
engineering, and construction, for one or more of these entities to be 
present simultaneously on each others' parcels of land, regardless of 
the exact dates legal title may be transferred. The railroad may, by 
necessary implication, locate and construct its new track facility 
without the need for a separate fee or use permit being processed under 
the usual federal land management statutes. Section 761 already 
authorizes the applicable Secretary to impose additional terms on the 
railroad as appropriate to protect the U.S. interests.
  Further, while Section 761 did not directly amend The Alaska Railroad 
Transfer Act of 1982, under which the federally-owned railroad was sold 
to the state, once again, it is logically and necessarily implied that 
the reversionary provisions of the 1982 Act will not apply to land 
segments given up by the railroad to facilitate this project. Instead, 
the reversionary provisions will transfer and apply to the new land 
acquired by the railroad from the federal entities in the exchange.
  Finally, Section 761 had no intent to imply any derogation of the 
permanent withdrawal and agreement under Section 1425 of ANILCA, P.L. 
86-487, as to any of the lands being exchanged. It is the intent of 
Section 761 that the lands received by each grantee, either the 
railroad or the federal entities, shall have in its hands the same 
status with respect to Section 1425 of ANILCA and the agreement as did 
the lands granted in exchange by each such grantee. Further, it is 
intended that any land or interest reconveyed by the railroad to a 
federal agency will be automatically considered a part of the 
surrounding public land withdrawal without need for further 
administrative action respecting those lands.

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