[Senate Report 107-27]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                        Calendar No. 62

107th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session                                                     107-27

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



 
                HUNA TOTEM CORPORATION LAND EXCHANGE ACT

                                _______
                                

                  June 5, 2001.--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. 506]

    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 
referred the bill (S. 506) 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 without amendment and recommends that the 
bill do pass.

                         Purpose of the Measure

    The purpose of S. 506 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 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.
    The Huna Totem Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation 
formed pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 
(ANCSA) (P.L. 92-203) is located within the Village of Hoonah. 
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 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. 506 would require the Huna 
Totem Corporation to convey ownership of approximately 1,999 
acres of land used for the municipal watershed to the United 
States 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. Sealaska, 
the regional corporation in the area created by ANCSA, owns the 
subsurface estate. The bill directs an equal value exchange of 
the subsurface estate between Sealaska and the Forest Service. 
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 export.

                          Legislative History

    S. 506 is identical to S. 426 from the 106th Congress as 
passed by the Senate. S. 426 was introduced by Senator 
Murkowski on February 12, 1999. Except for minor technical 
changes made in S. 426, an identical bill was considered by the 
Committee during the 105th Congress. S. 426 was ordered 
favorably reported by the Committee with amendments on March 4, 
1999 (S. Rept. 106-30) and passed the Senate with amendments on 
April 19, 1999. The measure was referred to the House Resources 
Committee which ordered the bill favorably reported on 
September 13, 2000. 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 May 16, 2001, by a unanimous voice vote of 
a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 506, 
without amendment.

                      Section-by-Section Analysis

    Section 1 states that the short title is the ``Huna Totem 
Corporation Land Exchange Act''.
    Section 2 amends the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act 
by adding a new section that directs the Secretary of 
Agriculture in exchange for an equal value of lands, to convey 
to Huna Totem Corporation the surface estate and to Sealaska 
Corporation the subsurface estate to certain lands.
    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 (e) provides 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 section 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) provides that the land 
conveyed to Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska Corporation be 
considered as land conveyed under ANCSA for all purpose.

                   Cost and Budgetary Considerations

    The following estimate of the cost of this measure has been 
provided by the Congressional Budget Office:

S. 506--Huna Totem Corporation Land Exchange Act

    CBO estimates that enacting S. 506 would have no 
significant impact on the federal budget. Because the bill 
could affect direct spending (including offsetting receipts), 
pay-as-you-go procedures would apply, but we estimate that any 
such impacts would be less than $500,000 a year. S. 506 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no 
significant costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
    S. 506 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 lands 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. 
Under the bill, the Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska 
Corporation would convey to the United States approximately 
2,000 acres of surface and subsurface estate.
    S. 506 does not specify the federal lands to be conveyed to 
the corporations, 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 estimates that 
enacting this legislation 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 timber harvesting because it 
lies within the watershed and viewshed of the village of 
Hoonah. Some of the federal land that could be conveyed to the 
corporation under S. 506 currently does not generate federal 
timber receipts because it has recently been logged; 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 agency, if the corporation harvested those 
areas following the exchange, then the agency would be 
obligated under the forest management plan to reserve for 
conservation another area of federal land within the Tongass 
National Forest that otherwise would be harvested under current 
law. We estimate that any resulting loss of timber receipts 
would be less than $500,000 a year over the 2002-2011 period.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Megan Carroll. 
This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, 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. 506 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. 506, as ordered reported.

                        Executive Communications

    On March 9, 2001, the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources requested legislative reports from the Department of 
Agriculture and the Office of Management and Budget setting 
forth Executive agency recommendations on S. 506. These reports 
had not been received at the time the report on S. 506 was 
filed. When the reports become available, the Chairman will 
request that they be printed in the Congressional Record for 
the advice of the Senate.

                        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. 506, 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

SEC. XX. 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, R61E, C.R.M.
Portion of Section                                     Approximate 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 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 by 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 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 in 
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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