[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 9, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6536-S6537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI:
  S. 2018. A bill to convey, without consideration, the reversionary 
interests

[[Page S6537]]

of the United States in and to certain non-Federal land in Glennallen, 
Alaska; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today I introduce legislation to aid an 
Alaska higher educational institution obtain title to property it no 
longer needs, and that the Federal Government clearly no longer wants. 
I rise to introduce legislation to clear the title to a 210-acre parcel 
in Glennallen, AK, so that the land can be put to more productive uses 
in the future.
  Back in 1926 the Central Alaska Mission began operations in 
Glennallen. In 1954 it received a Federal land grant from Congress, 
modified in 1959, and received 210 acres in ``downtown'' Glennallen--
the current site of the hospital and radio station and former site of 
the Alaska Bible College. In 1961 it actually opened the Bible College 
on 80 acres of the tract, the site apparently having about 64 separate 
buildings erected on it. The 1959 land grant, like many in first the 
Territory of Alaska and later the State of Alaska, had a clause that 
should the property no longer be used for religious/public purposes 
that it would revert to the federal government. The Bible College, 
because of a lack of students in Glennallen, moved into the Matanuska-
Susitna Borough, to Palmer, AK, last decade. Now it wishes to be able 
to sell the property to be rid of the maintenance costs on the 
facilities.
  The problem is that there apparently are no non-profits or few 
businesses in Glennallen that can afford to pay the officially 
appraised value for the properties. The parent of the Bible College 3 
years ago asked the Federal Bureau of Land Management, BLM, 
administratively to start a process where it would decide the value of 
the properties and what it would have to pay the government to buy out 
the value of the ``reversionary clause'' so it could obtain clear title 
to sell the properties for whatever amount it could get. That appraisal 
was conducted mutually and came back late last year that the 210-acres, 
minus a sewage lagoon on the property that has no sales value, is worth 
$210,000. The college says the college can't afford that amount to buy 
out the value of the reversionary clause--because regardless of the 
appraisal, there is no entity in Glennallen that can afford to pay 
anywhere near that amount for the properties given the level of 
economic activity at present in the upper Copper River Valley in 
Alaska.
  The college is arguing, correctly, that the Federal Government is 
wrong in setting the value of the reversionary clause as the full 
appraised value of the property for tax purposes. If willing sellers 
can't be found who can afford to pay the ``appraised'' value of the 
property, then obviously the appraisal process is faulty. Secondly, the 
college is arguing that it has fully met the goal of Congress in 1959 
that the land be used for the public purpose of operating an 
educational institution. For more than 40 years the property was used 
by Alaska Bible College, the college only moving into a more urban part 
of Alaska when student levels proved insufficient to support the 
school. Clearly it makes no sense for the reversionary clause to remain 
in effect in perpetuity when land use patterns have changed. Third, the 
Federal Government does not need the land for any federal purpose. The 
land, not located in an urban setting in the small town of Glennallen, 
population, 491, is not suited for a park. The land is not needed for 
any Federal facility given its location in sparsely populated east 
central Alaska. Being inside the Glennallen city limits, the land can 
not be allowed to revert to a natural vegetative state under the town's 
ordinances. It simply makes good sense for the land to be sold for 
economic purposes so it can generate more revenues for the town's tax 
rolls. Given the real estate market in Glennallen, the Federal 
Government will lose far more money than it will make if it has to tear 
down the unwanted buildings in order to sell the property, or maintain 
them until another purpose for the structures can be found, at the 
current appraised tax values of the properties.
  In each case, reversion of the lands to the Federal Government would 
result in Federal ownership of tracts unneeded for Federal purposes, 
but lands that would produce greater conveyance and management costs to 
the Federal treasury than are likely to be recovered through fair 
market sales. There is just no public policy purpose in the 21st 
century not to permit these very limited Federal reversion 
extinguishments, especially since the land did meet the purpose of the 
reversionary clause for more than four decades.
  Passage of this act would cost the Federal Government nothing, but 
would aid the citizens of Glennallen by allowing the lands to be put to 
a better use, hopefully adding to the city's economy and perhaps 
increasing its future tax revenues. I hope this bill will be able to 
advance and become law within the 114th Congress.

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