[Senate Report 106-30]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 68
106th Congress Report
1st Session SENATE 106-30
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HUNA TOTEM CORPORATION PUBLIC INTEREST LAND EXCHANGE ACT
_______
March 22, 1999.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Murkowski, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 426]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 426) to amend the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act, to provide for a land exchange between the
Secretary of Agriculture and the Huna Totem Corporation, and
for other purposes, having considered the same, reports
favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill,
as amended, do pass.
The amendments are as follows:
1. On page 1, line 5, strike ``Public Interest''.
2. On page 2, lines 10 and 11, strike ``: Lands exchanged
pursuant to this section shall be on the basis of equal
value.'' and insert in lieu thereof ``. The values of the lands
and interests therein exchanged pursuant to this section shall
be equal.''.
Purpose of the Measure
The purpose of S. 426, as ordered reported, is to direct
the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into an equal value
exchange of lands and interests therein, in the Tongass
National Forest with the Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska
Corporation.
Background and Need
The city of Hoonah is located in southeast Alaska on the
northeast part of Chichagoff Island. Hoonah has been the home
of the Huna people since the last advance of the great ice
masses into Glacier Bay, forcing the Huna people to look for
new homes. Since the Huna people had traditionally used the
Hoonah area each summer as a subsistence harvesting area, it
was natural for them to settle in the area now called Hoonah.
The community has a population of approximately 918 residents
and is located forty miles from Juneau, Alaska's capital city.
Within the city of Hoonah is located the Huna Totem
Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation formed pursuant to
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) (P.L. 92-203).
Huna Totem is the largest Tlingit Indian Village Corporation in
southeast Alaska. Under the terms of ANCSA each village
corporation had to select lands within the core township or
townships in which all or part of the Native village is
located.
In 1975, Huna Totem filed its ANCSA land selections within
the two-mile radius of the city of Hoonah as mandated by ANCSA.
Since the community of Hoonah is located along the shoreline at
the base of Hoonah Head Mountain, the surrounding lands are
steep hillsides, cliffs, or are designated watershed for the
municipal water sources. Most of the land, approximately 1,999
acres, is not conducive to logging or development due to the
topography and watershed limitations.
To resolve this problem, S. 426 would require the Huna
Totem Corporation to convey ownership of approximately 1,999
acres of land used for the municipal watershed to the U.S.
Forest Service. In exchange, the Huna Totem Corporation will be
allowed to select other lands readily accessible to Hoonah in
order to fulfill their ANCSA entitlement. This legislation also
requires the exchange of lands to be of equal value. Lastly,
the legislation requires that any potential timber harvested
from land acquired by Huna Totem Corporation not be available
for report.
Legislative History
S. 426 was introduced by Senator Murkowski on February 12,
1999. At the business meeting on march 4, 1999, the Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources ordered S. 426, as amended,
favorably reported. Except for minor technical changes made in
S. 426, an identical bill was considered by the Full Committee
during the 105th Congress. The Full Committee held a hearing on
September 17, 1997; and the bill was favorably reported as
amended on September 24, 1997. Senator Murkowski offered a
floor amendment in the nature of a substitute and the bill
passed the Senate, as amended, on June 25, 1998. No further
action was taken in the House.
Committee Recommendations and Tabulation of Votes
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in open
business session on March 4, 1999, by a unanimous voice vote of
a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 426, if
amended as described herein.
Committee Amendments
During the consideration of S. 426, the Committee adopted
minor technical changes.
Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1 states that the short title is the ``Huna Totem
Corporation Land Exchange Act''.
Section 2(a) directs the Secretary of Agriculture to convey
to the Huna Totem Corporation the surface estate and to
Sealaska Corporation the subsurface estate to certain lands as
described in Subsection (c). This subsection also requires that
the values of the exchanges be of equal value.
Subsection (b) contains a legal description of lands to be
conveyed by the Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska to the
Secretary along with a reference to maps showing the municipal
watershed.
Subsection (c) directs that, within 90 days after receipt
by the United States of the conveyances owned by Huna Totem and
Sealaska Corporation that Huna Totem shall be entitled to
identify lands readily accessible to the Village of Hoonah,
where possible on the road system in writing to the Secretary.
Subsection (d) requires that within 90 days after the list
of identified lands is submitted by Huna the conveyance of
lands by the Secretary shall occur.
Subsection (e) requires that any timber harvested from the
lands conveyed to Huna Totem Corporation under this section not
be available for the purpose of exporting that timber from the
state of Alaska. This subsection also prohibits any party to
which Huna Totem Corporation may sell, trade, exchange,
substitute, or convey any of the timber from the lands it
receives under this section from using the timber for the
purpose of export.
Subsection (f) requires the land conveyed to Huna Totem
Corporation and Sealaska Corporation to be for all purposes,
considered land conveyed under ANCSA.
Subsection (g) directs that the maps referred to in this
section be maintained on file in the Office of the Chief,
Forest Service, and in the Office of the Secretary of the
Interior, Washington, D.C. Should a discrepancy arise between
cited acreage and lands on the maps, this section dictates that
the maps control.
Cost and Budgetary Considerations
The following estimate of costs of the measures has been
provided by the Congressional Budget Office.
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, March 11, 1999.
Hon. Frank H. Murkowski,
Chairman, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 426, the Huna Totem
Corporation Public Interest Land Exchange Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Victoria Heid
Hall.
Sincerely,
Barry B. Anderson
(For Dan L. Crippen, Director).
Enclosure.
congressional budget office cost estimate
S. 426--Huna Totem Corporation Public Interest Land Exchange Act
CBO estimates that this bill would not have a significant
impact on the federal budget. Because the bill could affect
offsetting receipts (a credit against direct spending), pay-as-
you-go procedures would apply, but we estimate that any
increase in direct spending would total less than $500,000 a
year. S. 426 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no significant costs on the budget of state,
local, or tribal governments.
S. 426 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey
the surface estate to certain federal lands in the Tongass
National Forest to the Huna Totem Corporation, and also to
convey the subsurface estate to such federal lands to the
Sealaska Corporation. The federal land to be conveyed would be
selected by the two corporations from federal lands depicted on
the map described in the bill and dated September 1, 1997. The
bill also provides that the Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska
convey to the United States approximately 2,000 acres of
surface and subsurface estate.
S. 426 does not specify the federal land to be conveyed to
the Huna Totem Corporation, but it provides that the exchange
be on the basis of equal value. Because the federal budget is
on a cash basis, the budgetary impact of the land exchange is
measured by its effect on the government's cash flow, such as
changes in offsetting receipts from timber harvests. CBO
expects that enacting this bill could decrease offsetting
receipts to the federal government. According to the Forest
Service, the agency would generally consider the area acquired
from the corporation to be unsuitable for future harvesting
because it lies within the watershed and viewshed for the city
of Hoonah. Some of the federal land that could be conveyed to
the corporation under S. 426 currently does not generate
federal timber receipts because it has been logged recently;
however, a portion of the federal land that could be conveyed
is not currently being harvested because it has been set aside
as part of a conservation reserve under the Tongass National
Forest management plan. According to the Forest Service, if the
corporation harvested those areas following the exchange, then
the agency would be obliged under the forest management plan to
reserve for conservation another area of federal land within
the Tongass National Forest that would otherwise be harvested
under current law. We estimate that any resulting loss of
timber receipts would be less than $500,000 a year over the
2000-2009 period.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Victoria Heid
Hall. This estimate was approved by Robert A. Sunshine, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
Regulatory Impact Evaluation
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out S. 426. The bill is not a regulatory measure in
the sense of imposing Government-established standards or
significant economic responsibilities on private individuals
and businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of S. 426, as ordered reported.
Executive Communications
The pertinent legislative report received by the Committee
from the Department of Agriculture setting forth Executive
agency recommendation relating to S. 426 are set forth below:
Department of Agriculture,
Washington, DC, March 4, 1999.
Hon. Frank H. Murkowski,
Chairman, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate,
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Frank: I write to express the Administration's strong
opposition to S. 426, the Huna Totem Corporation Land Exchange
Act, and S. 430, the Kake Tribal Corporation Land Exchange Act,
which are scheduled for consideration by the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources today. The bills would direct the
Secretary of Agriculture to enter into land exchanges with Huna
Totem Corporation and Kake Tribal Corporation, which own
surface estates, and Sealaska, which owns subsurface estates in
southeast Alaska.
The Administration strongly opposed these two bills (S.
1158 and S. 1159) during the 105th Congress. Because both bills
would set unacceptable precedents by reopening native
entitlements under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
(ANCSA), the Secretary of the Interior and I would recommend
that the President veto the bill.
ANCSA granted more than 200 village corporations the right
to select public lands in Alaska for a variety of uses. Each
corporation was required to select the public lands within the
township in which it was located. ANCSA was a final settlement
and, as such, represented many trade-offs and compromises by
all parties.
If either S. 426 or S. 430 were enacted, all of Alaska's
village corporations could argue that they too were entitled to
exchange land selected under ANCSA for more desirable land.
This precedent would threaten to unravel ANCSA's historic
settlement through piece-meal amendments. In turn, Federal land
management throughout Alaska would be severely disrupted with
significant costs and consequences for all taxpayers.
Beyond the question of precedent, the land exchanges
proposed by these two bills would not be in the public
interest. The primary reason the U.S. Forest Service pursues
land exchanges is to provide more efficient land management
through consolidation of existing Federal ownership and to
dispose of isolated parcels that are uneconomical to manage. S.
426 and S. 430 are in direct conflict with these goals.
Both bills are based on the premise that because some of
the land the Kake Tribal Corporation and Huna Totem Corporation
received within their townships under ANCSA is municipal
watershed land not subject to development, the United States
should provide the corporations with replacement land
elsewhere. ANCSA, however, contemplated that villages would
obtain all land within their ``core'' townships regardless of
its development potential.
The Federal Government should not administer municipal
watershed lands in Alaska, as would be required by S. 430.
Rather, such lands should be managed by those communities which
derive benefit from the land. Federal ownership of municipal
watersheds is inconsistent with the ownership patterns
envisioned by ANCSA, whereby native corporations had to select
lands within their core townships.
The Office of Management and Budget advises that there is
no objection to the presentation of this report from the
standpoint of the Administration's program.
Sincerely,
Dan Glickman, Secretary.
Changes in Existing Law
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
the bill S. 426, as ordered reported, are shown as follows
(existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black
brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in
which no change is proposed is shown in roman):
ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1971
(43 U.S.C. 1601, et seq.), as amended
SECTION . HUNA TOTEM CORPORATION LAND EXCHANGE.
(a) General.--In exchange for lands and interests therein
described in subsection (b), the Secretary of Agriculture
shall, subject to valid existing rights, convey to the Huna
Totem Corporation the surface estate and to Sealaska
Corporation the subsurface estate of the Federal lands
identified by Huna Totem Corporation pursuant to subsection
(c). The values of the lands and interests therein exchanged
pursuant to this section shall be equal.
(b) The surface estate to be conveyed by Huna Totem
Corporation and the subsurface estate to be conveyed by
Sealaska Corporation to the Secretary of Agriculture are the
municipal watershed lands as shown on the map dated September
1, 1997, and labeled attachment A, and are further described as
follows:
municipal watershed and greenbelt buffer
T43S, R16E, C.R.M.
Approximate
Portion of Section Acres
16................................................................ 2
21................................................................ 610
22................................................................ 227
23................................................................ 35
26................................................................ 447
27................................................................ 400
33................................................................ 202
34................................................................ 76
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Approximate total........................................... 1,999
(c) Within ninety (90) days of the receipt by the United
States of the conveyances of the surface estate and the
subsurface estate described in subsection (b), Huna Totem
Corporation shall be entitled to identify lands readily
accessible to the Village of Hoonah and, where possible,
located on the road system to the Village of Hoonah, as
depicted on the map dated September 1, 1997, and labeled
Attachment B. Huna Totem Corporation shall notify the Secretary
of Agriculture in writing which lands Huna Totem Corporation
has identified.
(d) Timing of Conveyance and Valuation.--The conveyance
mandated by subsection (a) by the Secretary of Agriculture
shall occur within ninety (90) days after the list of
identified lands is submitted to Huna Totem Corporation
pursuant to subsection (c).
(e) Timber Manufacturing; Export Restriction.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, timber harvested
from land conveyed to Huna Totem Corporation under this section
shall not be for exported as unprocessed logs from Alaska, nor
may Huna Totem Corporation sell, trade, exchange, substitute,
or otherwise convey that timber to any person for the purpose
of exporting that timber from the State of Alaska.
(f) Relation to Other Requirements.--The land conveyed to
Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska Corporation under this
section shall be considered, for all purposes, land conveyed
under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
(g) Maps.--The maps referred to in this section shall be
maintained on file in the Office of the Chief, United States
Forest Service, and in the Office of the Secretary of the
Interior, Washington, D.C. The acreage cited in this section is
approximate, and if there is any discrepancy between cited
acreage and the land depicted on the specified maps, the maps
shall control. The maps do not constitute an attempt by the
United States to convey State or private land.