[House Report 111-198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


111th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session                                                    111-198

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    PROVIDING FOR THE SALE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S REVERSIONARY 
  INTEREST IN APPROXIMATELY 60 ACRES OF LAND IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, 
ORIGINALLY CONVEYED TO THE MOUNT OLIVET CEMETERY ASSOCIATION UNDER THE 
                        ACT OF JANUARY 23, 1909

                                _______
                                

 July 10, 2009.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

  Mr. Rahall, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 1442]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 1442) to provide for the sale of the Federal 
Government's reversionary interest in approximately 60 acres of 
land in Salt Lake City, Utah, originally conveyed to the Mount 
Olivet Cemetery Association under the Act of January 23, 1909, 
having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an 
amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.
    The amendment is as follows:
    Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
following:

SECTION 1. CONVEYANCE OF FEDERAL REVERSIONARY INTEREST, MT. OLIVET 
                    CEMETERY, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.

  (a) Conveyance Required.--If, within one year after the completion of 
the appraisal required by subsection (c), the Mount Olivet Cemetery 
Association of Salt Lake City, Utah (in this section referred to as the 
``Association''), submits to the Secretary of the Interior an offer to 
acquire the Federal reversionary interest in all of the approximately 
60 acres of land in Salt Lake City, Utah, conveyed to the Association 
under the Act of January 23, 1909 (chapter 37, 35 Stat. 589), the 
Secretary shall convey to the Association such reversionary interest in 
the lands covered by the offer. The Secretary shall complete the 
conveyance not later than 30 days after the date of the offer.
  (b) Survey.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary shall complete a survey of the lands 
described in subsection (a) to determine the precise boundaries and 
acreage of the lands subject to the Federal reversionary interest.
  (c) Appraisal.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary shall complete an appraisal of the Federal 
reversionary interest in the lands identified by the survey in 
subsection (b). The appraisal shall be completed in accordance with the 
``Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions'' and the 
``Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice''.
  (d) Consideration.--As consideration for the conveyance of the 
Federal reversionary interest under subsection (a), the Association 
shall pay to the Secretary an amount equal to the appraised value of 
the Federal interest, as determined under subsection (c). The 
consideration shall be paid not later than 30 days after the date the 
conveyance is made.
  (e) Costs of Conveyance.--As a condition of the conveyance under 
subsection (a), all costs associated with the conveyance under 
subsection (a), including the cost of the survey required by subsection 
(b) and the appraisal required by subsection (c), shall be paid by the 
Association.
  (f) Deposit and Use of Proceeds.--The Secretary shall deposit the 
proceeds from the conveyance under subsection (a) in the Federal Land 
Disposal Account established by section 206 of the Federal Land 
Transaction Facilitation Act (43 U.S.C. 2305). The proceeds so 
deposited shall be available to the Secretary for expenditure in 
accordance with subsection (c) of such section.

                          PURPOSE OF THE BILL

    The purpose of H.R. 1442 is to provide for the sale of the 
federal government's reversionary interest in approximately 60 
acres of land in Salt Lake City, Utah, originally conveyed to 
the Mount Olivet Cemetery Association under the Act of January 
23, 1909.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    In 1877, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation authorizing 
the Secretary of War to set aside 20 acres of federal land to 
be used as a public cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 
Secretary established a Board of Trustees to oversee the 
cemetery, which was named the Mount Olivet Cemetery Association 
(Association).
    The Act of January 23, 1909 (Chapter 37, 35 Stat. 5890) 
enabled the Association to acquire an additional 60 acres, 
which were adjacent to the cemetery, as part of an exchange 
with the federal government, with the condition that the 
interest in the land would revert to the federal government if 
any of those 60 acres were not used for the purpose of a 
cemetery. This reversionary interest is currently held by the 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Department of the 
Interior.
    This legislation is prompted by the fact that the Rowland 
Hall-St. Marks School, situated adjacent to the Cemetery, has 
contracted with the Association to purchase 13 acres of its 
land to expand its facility. However, the sale is subject to 
removal of the federal government's reversionary interest.
    H.R. 1442 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to 
convey the government's reversionary interest in the land to 
the Association for fair market value. Costs of the conveyance 
must also be paid by the Association.

                            COMMITTEE ACTION

    H.R. 1442 was introduced on March 11, 2009 by 
Representative Matheson (D-UT). The bill was referred to the 
Committee on Resources, and within the Committee to the 
Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. On 
May 14, 2009, the Subcommittee held a hearing on the 
legislation during which the Administration testified in favor 
of the bill with several proposed amendments.
    On June 10, 2009, the Subcommittee was discharged from 
further consideration of H.R. 1442 and the Full Natural 
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. Subcommittee 
Chairman Grijalva (D-AZ) offered an amendment in the nature of 
a substitute to require that a land survey be completed before 
the appraisal, that the conveyance of the reversionary interest 
include the entire parcel rather than just a portion, and 
mandating that the conveyance be completed within 12 months of 
the completion of the appraisal. The amendment was adopted by 
unanimous consent. The bill, as amended, was then ordered 
favorably reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous 
consent.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Conveyance of Federal Reversionary Interest, Mt. Olivet 
        Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah

    Subsection (a) requires the Secretary of the Interior 
(Secretary) to convey the federal reversionary interest in 
approximately 60 acres of land in Salt Lake City, Utah within 
30 days of an offer from the Mount Olivet Cemetery Association 
(Association) provided that the offer is made within one year 
of the completion of an appraisal of the property.
    Subsection (b) requires the Secretary to complete a survey 
of the property within 90 days of enactment to determine 
precise boundaries and acreage.
    Subsection (c) requires the Secretary to complete an 
appraisal of the property within 180 days of enactment, with 
all costs borne by the Association.
    Subsection (d) provides that the Association shall pay to 
the Secretary the appraised value of the federal interest 
within 30 days of conveyance.
    Subsection (e) requires that all associated costs of the 
conveyance be paid by the Association.
    Subsection (f) directs the deposit of proceeds from the 
transaction into the Federal Land Disposal Account and makes 
them available for expenditure in accordance with the Federal 
Land Transaction Facilitation Act.

            COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

    Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and 
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.

                   CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY STATEMENT

    Article IV, section 3 of the Constitution of the United 
States grants Congress the authority to enact this bill.

                    COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII

    1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(2) of rule XIII of the 
Rules of the House of Representatives requires an estimate and 
a comparison by the Committee of the costs which would be 
incurred in carrying out this bill. However, clause 3(d)(3)(B) 
of that rule provides that this requirement does not apply when 
the Committee has included in its report a timely submitted 
cost estimate of the bill prepared by the Director of the 
Congressional Budget Office under section 402 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
    2. Congressional Budget Act. As required by clause 3(c)(2) 
of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and 
section 308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, this 
bill does not contain any new budget authority, spending 
authority, credit authority, or an increase or decrease in 
revenues or tax expenditures.
    3. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by 
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or 
objective of this bill is to provide for the sale of the 
federal government's reversionary interest in approximately 60 
acres of land in Salt Lake City, Utah, originally conveyed to 
the Mount Olivet Cemetery Association under the Act of January 
23, 1909.
    4. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate. Under clause 
3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives and section 403 of the Congressional Budget Act 
of 1974, the Committee has received the following cost estimate 
for this bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office:

H.R. 1442--A bill to provide for the sale of the federal government's 
        reversionary interest in approximately 60 acres of land in Salt 
        Lake City, Utah, originally conveyed to the Mount Olivet 
        Cemetery Association under the Act of January 23, 1909

    H.R. 1442 would direct the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 
to sell the federal government's reversionary interest in about 
60 acres of land in Salt Lake City. CBO estimates that enacting 
H.R. 1442 would have no net effect on direct spending and no 
effect on revenues.
    The legislation contains no intergovernmental or private-
sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 
and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal 
governments.
    The land affected by H.R. 1442 was conveyed to the Mount 
Olivet Cemetery Association in 1909 under a law that specified 
that any portion of the conveyance not used for burials would 
revert to the United States. (Later statutes permitted the 
association to lease the land for commercial purposes but not 
sell it.) By authorizing BLM to sell the reversionary interest 
in a 60-acre portion of the original conveyance to the cemetery 
association, H.R. 1442 would allow the land to be subsequently 
sold by the association. Proceeds from the sale would be 
available to BLM without further appropriation to acquire other 
lands in Utah. Administrative costs related to the transaction 
would be borne by the association.
    Enacting H.R. 1442 would increase both offsetting receipts 
from proceeds of land sales and associated spending of those 
proceeds, resulting in no net change in direct spending. CBO 
cannot estimate the amount of such receipts and spending 
precisely in the absence of an appraisal to determine the value 
of the government's reversionary interest in the affected land. 
However, we expect that BLM would receive and spend less than 
$1 million, probably in fiscal year 2010.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Deborah Reis. 
The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                    COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4

    This bill contains no unfunded mandates.

                           EARMARK STATEMENT

    H.R. 1442 does not contain any congressional earmarks, 
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in 
clause 9(d), 9(e) or 9(f) of rule XXI.

                PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW

    This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or 
tribal law.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    If enacted, this bill would make no changes in existing 
law.

                                  
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