[House Report 114-76]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


114th Congress      }                              {       Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session        }                              {       114-76
====================================================================
 
     TO AUTHORIZE EARLY REPAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS TO THE BUREAU OF 
 RECLAMATION WITHIN THE NORTHPORT IRRIGATION DISTRICT IN THE STATE OF 
                                NEBRASKA

                                _______
                                

 April 15, 2015.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted 
                             the following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 404]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 404) to authorize early repayment of obligations 
to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport Irrigation 
District in the State of Nebraska, 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. 404 is to authorize early repayment of 
obligations to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport 
Irrigation District in the State of Nebraska.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    Under federal law, any irrigation district that receives 
contracted water from a Bureau of Reclamation facility must 
repay its allocated portion of the capital costs of the federal 
water project. These repayment costs are typically set forth in 
long-term capital repayment contracts between the irrigation 
district and the federal government.\1\
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    \1\http://www.ccrh.org/comm/moses/primary/reclamact.html.
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    Northport, located in western Nebraska, is one of four 
irrigation districts that receive water from the federal North 
Platte Project. Water for Northport is conveyed 80 miles from 
the Guernsey reservoir through the Tri-State Canal, which is 
privately owned and operated by the Farmers Irrigation 
District.\2\ In return for allowing the water to be conveyed 
through the Tri-State canal, Farmers receives compensation from 
Northport. Pursuant to a 1958 amendment to the Northport/Bureau 
of Reclamation contract, if the amount of the carriage fee owed 
to Farmers by Northport is more than $8,000 per year, Northport 
is not obligated to make its annual capital repayment to the 
federal government.\3\ According to a Northport official, the 
annual carriage fee can be anywhere from $80,000 to 
$100,000.\4\ Since carriage fees have been over $8,000 per year 
since the early 1950s, Northport's capital repayment debt to 
the federal government has remained at approximately $923,000 
for over six decades.\5\ As long as Northport owes the debt, 
its landowners are subject to a 960 irrigated acre planting 
limitation and paperwork requirements that must be met prior to 
getting water each year, as set forth in the Reclamation Reform 
Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-293).\6\
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    \2\http://www.usbr.gov/projects/
Project.jsp?proj_Name=North+Platte+Project.
    \3\http://naturalresources.house.gov/UploadedFiles/WPLetter1.pdf.
    \4\Natural Resources Republican staff conversation with Northport 
Irrigation District Board Member George Hall on June 3, 2014.
    \5\http://naturalresources.house.gov/UploadedFiles/WPLetter1.pdf.
    \6\Natural Resources Republican staff conversation with Northport 
Irrigation District Board Member George Hall on June 3, 2014.
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    There are several landowners within Northport who have 
reached retirement age with plans to leave the real estate to 
family members who have already accumulated acres of land. 
Those combined acres will make additional families subject to 
the 960 irrigated acre planting limitation. Several landowners 
within Northport are willing to repay their portion of the 
capital repayment obligations owed to the federal government to 
avoid being subject to the federal requirements of Public Law 
97-293. The same law, however, prohibits these landowners from 
making such accelerated or lump sum payments. According to a 
Northport board member, approximately a third of the landowners 
may use the authorities granted in H.R. 404 to repay the 
federal government.\7\
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    \7\Id.
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    Allowing individual landowners the ability to accelerate 
payments is based on two relatively recent precedents: The 
Southern Idaho Bureau of Reclamation Repayment Act (Section 508 
of Public Law 110-229)\8\ and The Southern Oregon Bureau of 
Reclamation Repayment Act (Public Law 109-138)\9\. These public 
laws and H.R. 404 waive Section 213 of the Reclamation Reform 
Act of 1982, which prohibits any early repayment unless the 
repayment contract between an irrigation district and the 
United States allowed for prepayment of the contract at the 
time the Reclamation Reform Act was enacted.
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    \8\http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-110publ229/html/PLAW-
110publ229.htm.
    \9\http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ138/html/PLAW-
109publ138.htm.
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    In the 113th Congress, the Committee on Natural Resources 
reported an identical measure, H.R. 4562 (House Report 113-
536). This bill passed the House of Representatives by voice 
vote on July 22, 2014, but the Senate failed to act on the 
bill.

                            COMMITTEE ACTION

    H.R. 404 was introduced on January 16, 2015, by Congressman 
Adrian Smith (R-NE). The bill was referred to the Committee on 
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee 
on Water, Power and Oceans. On March 24, 2015, the Natural 
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee 
on Water, Power and Oceans was discharged by unanimous consent. 
No amendments were offered and the bill was ordered favorably 
reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous consent 
on March 25, 2015.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Early repayment of construction costs

    Subsection (a) allows any landowner within the Northport 
Irrigation District to repay, at any time, the construction 
costs of project facilities allocated to the landowner's land 
within Northport, notwithstanding Section 213 of the 
Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-293).
    Subsection (b) stipulates that upon full repayment of all 
costs described in subsection (a), the parcels of land shall 
not be subject to the ownership and full-cost pricing 
limitations under the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (Public 
Law 97-293).
    Subsection (c) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to 
provide a certificate of repayment described in section 
213(b)(1) of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-
293) at the request of the landowner who has repaid the costs 
described in subsection (a).
    Subsection (d) states that nothing in the bill: (1) 
modifies any contractual rights under, or amends or reopens, 
the reclamation contract between Northport and the United 
States; or (2) modifies any rights, obligations, or 
relationships between Northport and landowners within Northport 
under Nebraska State law.

            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. 404--A bill to authorize early repayment of obligations to the 
        Bureau of Reclamation within the Northpoint Irrigation District 
        in the State of Nebraska

    H.R. 404 would allow individual landowners in the Northport 
Irrigation District in Nebraska to repay their share of the 
cost to build the North Platte Project in Nebraska. Based on 
information from the Bureau of Reclamation, CBO estimates that 
enacting the legislation would have an insignificant effect on 
the federal budget. Because the legislation would affect direct 
spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting H.R. 404 
would not affect revenues.
    Currently, the Northpoint Irrigation District is not making 
payments to the bureaus on the district's outstanding 
obligation of $924,000 that it owes for the construction of the 
irrigation project. Based on information from the bureau, CBO 
does not expect the district to begin repaying this debt during 
the next several years.
    H.R. 404 would allow the 25 individual landowners in the 
district to pay their portion of the balance early. Based on 
information from the district, we expect that about half of 
those landowners would do so under the bill. CBO estimates that 
those payments would increase offsetting receipts to the 
federal government (which are treated as reductions in direct 
spending) by abut $440,000 over the 2016-2025 period.
    H.R. 404 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Aurora Swanson. 
This estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, 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. Enactment of this 
bill would increase offsetting receipts by approximately 
$440,000 over the 2016-2015 time period, according to the 
Congressional Budget Office.
    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 authorize early repayment of 
obligations to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport 
Irrigation District in the State of Nebraska.

                           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

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

                               [all]