[Senate Report 106-30]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





                                                        Calendar No. 68

106th Congress                                                   Report
  1st Session                    SENATE                          106-30

=======================================================================




 
        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
                        -----------------------------------------------------------------
                        ________________________________________________
      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.

                                
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