[Senate Report 113-295]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       Calendar No. 635
113th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session                                                     113-295

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               PUBLIC ACCESS TO PUBLIC LAND GUARANTEE ACT

                                _______
                                

               December 10, 2014.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

   Ms. Landrieu, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 1750]

    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 
referred the bill (S. 1750) to authorize the Secretary of the 
Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into 
agreements with States and political subdivisions of States 
providing for the continued operation, in whole or in part, of 
public land, units of the National Park System, units of the 
National Wildlife Refuge System, and units of the National 
Forest System in the State during any period in which the 
Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture is 
unable to maintain normal level of operations at the units due 
to a lapse in appropriations, and for other purposes, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon without 
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                                PURPOSE

    The purpose of S. 1750 is to authorize the Secretary of the 
Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into 
agreements with States and political subdivisions of States 
providing for the continued operation of public land, units of 
the National Park System, units of the National Wildlife Refuge 
System, and units of the National Forest System in the State 
during any period in which the Secretary of the Interior or the 
Secretary of Agriculture is unable to maintain normal level of 
operations at the units due to a lapse in appropriations.

                          BACKGROUND AND NEED

    The Anti-Deficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. 1341, prohibits Federal 
agencies and their officers and employees administering public 
lands from making or authorizing any expenditure or obligation 
before Congress appropriates sufficient funds for the 
expenditure or obligation. As a result, Federal agencies have 
had to suspend most non-essential functions when Congress has 
failed to appropriate the funds needed to pay for those 
functions. During past lapses of appropriations in 1995-1996 
and 2013, partial government shutdowns have required Federal 
agencies managing public lands to close national parks, 
national forests, national wildlife refuges, and other public 
lands to the public. The closure of these sites hurt 
communities near these Federal lands that rely on visitor 
spending.
    In both the 1995-1996 and 2013 shutdowns, the National Park 
Service entered into individual agreements with certain states, 
at the States' request, to temporarily reopen several National 
Park sites with funds donated by the States. The agreements did 
not allow for reimbursement as that would create an obligation 
to pay money prior to Congressional appropriation.
    In 1996, Congress appropriated funds before the National 
Park Service spent the States' money. The parks were reopened 
using Federal funds and the National Park Service was able to 
return the unspent donated funds to the States. In 2013, 
however, the National Park Service spent the States' money to 
reopen parks before Congress appropriated Federal funds. The 
National Park Service has been unable to reimburse the States 
because it has no legal authority to do so.
    S. 1750 will give the public land management agencies 
authority to enter into agreements with States allowing the 
agencies to reimburse the States for State funds donated to the 
agencies to keep Federal lands open to the public during future 
appropriation lapses.

                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    S. 1750 was introduced by Senator Flake on November 20, 
2013. Senators Hatch, McCain, and Lee are original cosponsors. 
The Subcommittee on National Parks held a hearing on S. 1750 on 
July 23, 2014. A similar bill (H.R. 3661) has been introduced 
in the House by Representative Gosar with four cosponsors.

                        COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION

    The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in 
open business session on November 13, 2014, by a majority vote 
of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 1750.
    The rollcall vote on reporting the measure was 12 yeas, 10 
nays as follows:
        Yeas                          Nays
Ms. Murkowski                       Ms. Landrieu
Mr. Barrasso*                       Mr. Wyden
Mr. Risch*                          Mr. Johnson
Mr. Lee*                            Ms. Cantwell
Mr. Heller*                         Mr. Sanders
Mr. Flake                           Ms. Stabenow*
Mr. Scott*                          Mr. Udall
Mr. Alexander*                      Mr. Franken
Mr. Portman                         Mr. Schatz
Mr. Hoeven*                         Ms. Baldwin
Mr. Manchin
Mr. Heinrich
*Indicates vote by proxy

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

    Section 1 provides the short title, the ``Public Access to 
Public Land Guarantee Act''.
    Section 2 contains Congressional findings.
    Section 3 defines key terms used in the bill.
    Section 4 requires the Secretary of the Interior and the 
Secretary of Agriculture to enter into agreements in which they 
may use funds from a State or public subdivision of the State 
to reopen.
    Subsection (b) limits the authority of the agreement to 
periods in which the Secretary is unable to operate covered 
Federal lands at normal levels.
    Subsection (c) requires the Secretary to refund to the 
State or political subdivision of the State funds either on the 
date that funds are appropriated to return the covered unit to 
normal operating levels, or on the date on which the State or 
political subdivision of the State establishes, and fees for 
entrance or use of the covered unit are collected.
    Subsection (d) authorizes the Secretary, if appropriations 
allow, to reimburse the State or political subdivision of the 
State if the requirements of subsection (c) are not met.

                   COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

    The Congressional Budget Office estimate of the costs of 
this measure has been requested but was not received at the 
time the report was filed. When the Congressional Budget Office 
completes its cost estimate, it will be posted on the Internet 
at www.cbo.gov.

                      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. 1750.
    The Act 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. 1750, as ordered reported.

                   CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING

    S. 1750, as reported, does not contain any congressionally 
directed spending items, limited tax benefits, or limited 
tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the Standing Rules 
of the Senate.

                        EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

    The testimony provided by the National Park Service at the 
July 23, 2014, Subcommittee on National Parks hearing on S. 
1750 follows:

  Statement of Christina Goldfuss, Deputy Director, Congressional and 
 External Relations, National Park Service, Department of the Interior

    Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for 
the opportunity to provide the views of the Department on S. 
1750, a bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior or the 
Secretary of Agriculture to enter into agreements with States 
and political subdivisions of States providing for the 
continued operation, in whole or in part, of public land, units 
of the National Park System, units of the National Wildlife 
Refuge System, and units of the National Forest System in the 
State during any period in which the Secretary of the Interior 
or the Secretary of Agriculture, is unable to maintain normal 
level of operations at the units due to a lapse in 
appropriations, and for other purposes.
    The Department strongly opposes S. 1750. We have a great 
deal of sympathy for the businesses and communities that 
experienced a disruption of activity and loss of revenue during 
last fall's government shutdown and that stand to lose more if 
there is another funding lapse in the future. However, we 
disagree generally with the idea of enacting laws to try to 
lessen the impact of a future government shutdown for a few 
select governmental activities rather than protecting all such 
activities by avoiding a lapse in appropriations. We also 
believe that this legislation specifically, with its mandate to 
enter into agreements to reopen public lands at the request of 
a state, would be very difficult to execute. Furthermore, we 
are concerned that agreements to have states provide funding 
for activities that are inherently Federal in nature, even for 
a short period of time, would undermine the longstanding 
framework established by Congress for the management of Federal 
lands under the stewardship of the Department.
    S. 1750 would require the Secretary of the Interior and 
Secretary of Agriculture to enter into agreements with States 
or their political subdivisions, upon their request, to accept 
funds to open National Park units, National Wildlife Refuges, 
Bureau of Land Management lands, and National Forests. The 
authority would be in effect only during a period when the 
Secretary is unable to operate and manage the units at normal 
levels. The bill would also provide for reimbursement for the 
amounts provided to the Secretaries to reopen the sites when 
appropriations are enacted providing retroactive funding, or 
when the State or political subdivision establishes that 
entrance fees were collected for the period covered by the 
agreement. If those requirements are not met, the Secretary 
would have discretionary authority to provide reimbursement to 
the states, subject to the availability of appropriations.
    The desire to avoid the kind of disappointment to the 
public and disruption of economic activity that results from a 
lapse in Federal appropriations is understandable. When the 
partial government shutdown occurred from October 1 through 
October 16, 2013, a lot of attention was focused on effects of 
closures of national parks, national wildlife refuges, public 
lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and national 
forests--all places that are highly valued by the public for 
their recreational offerings and that serve as economic engines 
for the communities in which they are located.
    It was because of the critical importance of these sites 
that the Secretary of the Interior agreed to reopen several of 
them using donated funds during the partial shutdown. As the 
shutdown entered its second week, the National Park Service 
entered into donation agreements with six states to accept the 
donation of funds necessary to allow the National Park Service 
to temporarily reopen 13 national park units. In these cases, 
the states were concerned enough about the loss of economic 
activity associated with certain national parks to use their 
own funds to alleviate the impact of park closures.
    These agreements did help a select number of businesses and 
communities. However, they should not be held up as a model of 
how the Federal government should do business. The national 
parks that were opened during the shutdown were fortunate to be 
located in states that had the resources and political will to 
fund them. The National Park Service, the Bureau of Land 
Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which all 
seek to treat the land units under their stewardship equitably, 
have grave concerns about enshrining in law a process that 
favors units located in states willing to donate funds to 
operate them over those located in other states.
    Furthermore, the agreements were designed to be temporary, 
emergency measures for some individual situations, and would 
not necessarily work for operating all Federal lands. Even for 
those sites where agreements might work, the potential 
difficulty of executing agreements on the scale envisioned by 
S. 1570--every agreement that every state or political 
subdivision requests--at a time when most of the agencies' 
staff would be furloughed, cannot be overstated. During last 
October's partial shutdown, it was an enormous burden on the 
National Park Service and the Department, with their skeletal 
staffs, to execute just six agreements to reopen 13 park units. 
If a large number of states requested such agreements for a 
large number of sites in a future shutdown, the agencies likely 
would not have the capacity to respond to all of the requests.
    The 2013 Federal government shutdown had terrible impacts 
for American citizens, businesses, communities, states, and the 
economy as a whole. These impacts are summarized in the report 
released by the Office of Management and Budget entitled 
``Impacts and Costs of the October 2013 Federal Government 
Shutdown'' (November 2013). The report makes clear that the 
economic effects and disruption to lives and activities from 
the shutdown were felt far and wide. Enacting a law to try to 
avoid the impact of a future shutdown on specified activities 
is not a responsible alternative to simply making the political 
commitment to avoid a shutdown in the future by providing 
appropriations for all the vital functions the Federal 
government performs.
    Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. I would be happy 
to answer any questions you or any other members of the 
subcommittee may have.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no 
changes in existing law are made by S. 1750, as ordered 
reported.