[House Report 113-57]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


113th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session                                                     113-57

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      HILL CREEK CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT ACT

                                _______
                                

  May 14, 2013.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Hastings of Washington, from the Committee on Natural Resources, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 356]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 356) to clarify authority granted under the Act 
entitled ``An Act to define the exterior boundary of the Uintah 
and Ouray Indian Reservation in the State of Utah, and for 
other purposes'', having considered the same, report favorably 
thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

                          Purpose of the Bill

    The purpose of H.R. 356 is to clarify authority granted 
under the Act entitled ``An Act to define the exterior boundary 
of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in the State of 
Utah, and for other purposes.''

                  Background and Need for Legislation

    H.R. 356, the Hill Creek Cultural Preservation and Energy 
Development Act, authorizes an acre-for-acre land exchange to 
resolve a complex split-estate problem within an area known as 
the Hill Creek Extension of the Uintah and Ouray Indian 
Reservation of the Ute Tribe of Utah. Specifically, H.R. 356 
authorizes the State of Utah to exchange subsurface rights it 
owns beneath culturally and environmentally sensitive tribal 
lands in the southern portion of the Hill Creek Extension. In 
return for relinquishing this property, the State acquires an 
equal number of acres of federal subsurface administered by the 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the northern part of the 
Hill Creek Extension. These lands are within an actively 
developed area where the Tribe does not object to oil and gas 
leasing. The State subsurface lands concerned in H.R. 356 are 
administered by the School and Institutional Trust Lands 
Administration (SITLA), which supports K-12 education in Utah.
    To hold the U.S. Treasury and SITLA financially harmless, 
H.R. 356 reserves to the federal government an overriding 
mineral interest in all lands conveyed to the State equal to 
the percentage of revenue that the United States would have 
retained under the Mineral Leasing Act had the lands remained 
in federal ownership. In a similar fashion, the bill reserves 
to the State an equal overriding interest in the lands conveyed 
to the federal government.
    A detailed historical background concerning the Uintah and 
Ouray Indian Reservation and SITLA, as well as an analysis of 
the justification for H.R. 356, may be found in House Report 
112-509, the Committee Report accompanying H.R. 4027. H.R. 356 
is nearly identical to H.R. 4027, which passed the House in the 
112th Congress but did not move in the Senate. H.R. 356 does 
omit a provision that was included in H.R. 4027 to terminate 
the overriding mineral interests of the United States and the 
State of Utah after 30 years. This change was made to address 
concerns expressed by the Administration in a hearing held by 
the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs on March 
20, 2012. The State of Utah and the Ute Tribe strongly support 
enactment of this legislation.

                            Committee Action

    H.R. 356 was introduced on January 23, 2013, by Congressman 
Rob Bishop (R-UT). The bill was referred to the Committee on 
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the 
Subcommittees on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs and Energy 
and Mineral Resources. On April 24, 2013, the Full Natural 
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittees 
on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs and Energy and Mineral 
Resources were discharged by unanimous consent. No amendments 
were offered, and the bill was then adopted and ordered 
favorably reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous 
consent.

            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.

                    Compliance With House Rule XIII

    1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(1) 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)(2)(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. 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. 356--Hill Creek Cultural Preservation and Energy Development Act

    H.R. 356 would authorize a conveyance of mineral rights 
within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah among 
the state of Utah's School and Institutional Trust Land 
Administration (SITLA), the federal government, and the Ute 
Indian Tribe. SITLA currently owns the subsurface mineral 
rights to approximately 18,000 acres in the Hill Creek 
Extension of the reservation; however, the surface rights to 
that land are held in trust for the Ute Indian Tribe by the 
federal government. The legislation would authorize SITLA to 
relinquish to the Ute Indian Tribe its subsurface mineral 
rights in exchange for the subsurface rights to about 18,000 
acres of other land within the Hill Creek Extension owned by 
the federal government.
    CBO estimates that the legislation would have no 
significant impact on the federal budget over the 2014-2023 
period. Enacting H.R. 356 would not affect direct spending or 
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
    H.R. 356 would authorize a transfer of federally owned 
subsurface mineral rights for an equivalent number of acres of 
state land. However, the acres transferred may not have the 
same value because mineral deposits are not evenly spread 
across all areas. To compensate for such a potential imbalance, 
H.R. 356 would preserve a royalty interest in the value of any 
subsurface minerals that are developed on the transferred 
properties for the state and the federal governments.
    H.R. 356 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. 
Enacting the bill would benefit the tribe and state.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Martin von 
Gnechten. The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy 
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
    2. Section 308(a) of 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. CBO estimates that 
implementing this legislation would have no significant impact 
on the federal budget.
    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 clarify authority granted under 
the Act entitled ``An Act to define the exterior boundary of 
the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in the State of Utah, 
and for other purposes.''

                           Earmark Statement

    This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks, 
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined 
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives.

                    Compliance With Public Law 104-4

    This bill contains no unfunded mandates.

                       Compliance With H. Res. 5

    Directed Rule Making. The Chairman does not believe that 
this bill directs any executive branch official to conduct any 
specific rule-making proceedings.
    Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not 
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government 
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was 
not included in any report from the Government Accountability 
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139 
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic 
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program 
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law 
98-169) as relating to other programs.

                Preemption of State, Local or Tribal Law

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

         Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported

  In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by 
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (new matter is 
printed in italic and existing law in which no change is 
proposed is shown in roman):

                         ACT OF MARCH 11, 1948

 AN ACT To define the exterior boundary of the Uintah and Ouray Indian 
Reservation in the State of Utah, and for other purposes.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


  Sec. 5.  In order to further clarify authorizations under 
this Act, the State of Utah is hereby authorized to relinquish 
to the United States, for the benefit of the Ute Indian Tribe 
of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, State school trust or 
other State-owned subsurface mineral lands located beneath the 
surface estate delineated in Public Law 440 (approved March 11, 
1948) and south of the border between Grand County, Utah, and 
Uintah County, Utah, and select in lieu of such relinquished 
lands, on an acre-for-acre basis, any subsurface mineral lands 
of the United States located beneath the surface estate 
delineated in Public Law 440 (approved March 11, 1948) and 
north of the border between Grand County, Utah, and Uintah 
County, Utah, subject to the following conditions:
          (1) Reservation by united states.--The Secretary of 
        the Interior shall reserve an overriding interest in 
        that portion of the mineral estate comprised of 
        minerals subject to leasing under the Mineral Leasing 
        Act (30 U.S.C. 171 et seq.) in any mineral lands 
        conveyed to the State.
          (2) Extent of overriding interest.--The overriding 
        interest reserved by the United States under paragraph 
        (1) shall consist of--
                  (A) 50 percent of any bonus bid or other 
                payment received by the State as consideration 
                for securing any lease or authorization to 
                develop such mineral resources;
                  (B) 50 percent of any rental or other 
                payments received by the State as consideration 
                for the lease or authorization to develop such 
                mineral resources;
                  (C) a 6.25 percent overriding royalty on the 
                gross proceeds of oil and gas production under 
                any lease or authorization to develop such oil 
                and gas resources; and
                  (D) an overriding royalty on the gross 
                proceeds of production of such minerals other 
                than oil and gas, equal to 50 percent of the 
                royalty rate established by the Secretary of 
                the Interior by regulation as of October 1, 
                2011.
          (3) Reservation by state of utah.--The State of Utah 
        shall reserve, for the benefit of its State school 
        trust, an overriding interest in that portion of the 
        mineral estate comprised of minerals subject to leasing 
        under the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) 
        in any mineral lands relinquished by the State to the 
        United States.
          (4) Extent of overriding interest.--The overriding 
        interest reserved by the State under paragraph (3) 
        shall consist of--
                  (A) 50 percent of any bonus bid or other 
                payment received by the United States as 
                consideration for securing any lease or 
                authorization to develop such mineral resources 
                on the relinquished lands;
                  (B) 50 percent of any rental or other 
                payments received by the United States as 
                consideration for the lease or authorization to 
                develop such mineral resources;
                  (C) a 6.25 percent overriding royalty on the 
                gross proceeds of oil and gas production under 
                any lease or authorization to develop such oil 
                and gas resources; and
                  (D) an overriding royalty on the gross 
                proceeds of production of such minerals other 
                than oil and gas, equal to 50 percent of the 
                royalty rate established by the Secretary of 
                the Interior by regulation as of October 1, 
                2011.
          (5) No obligation to lease.--Neither the United 
        States nor the State shall be obligated to lease or 
        otherwise develop oil and gas resources in which the 
        other party retains an overriding interest under this 
        section.
          (6) Cooperative agreements.--The Secretary of the 
        Interior is authorized to enter into cooperative 
        agreements with the State and the Ute Indian Tribe of 
        the Uintah and Ouray Reservation to facilitate the 
        relinquishment and selection of lands to be conveyed 
        under this section, and the administration of the 
        overriding interests reserved hereunder.

                                  
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