[House Report 115-322]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


115th Congress }                                          { REPORT
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session   }                                          { 115-322

======================================================================
 
            FEDERAL LAND ASSET INVENTORY REFORM ACT OF 2017

                                _______
                                

 September 25, 2017.--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. 2199]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 2199) to improve Federal land management, 
resource conservation, environmental protection, and use of 
Federal real property, by requiring the Secretary of the 
Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real 
property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date 
Federal land inventories, 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. 2199 is to improve Federal land 
management, resource conservation, environmental protection, 
and use of Federal real property, by requiring the Secretary of 
the Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real 
property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date 
Federal land inventories.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    The federal government owns an estimated 640 million acres 
of land, although the actual acreage is not definitively known. 
The Bureau of Land Management manages 248.3 million acres of 
land and over 700 acres of subsurface minerals; the Forest 
Service (FS) manages 192.9 million acres of land; the Fish and 
Wildlife Service (FWS) manages 89.1 million acres of land; and 
the National Park Service (NPS) manages 79.8 million acres in 
the United States. The majority of this land is concentrated in 
the Western states and Alaska, with only 4.2% of federal land 
located in the Midwest and Eastern United States. From 1990 to 
2015, the size of the federal estate decreased by less than 4 
percent, with NPS, FWS, and FS all increasing the amount of 
land under their ownership. In addition to land ownership, the 
federal government also owns thousands of public buildings, and 
spends nearly $2 billion per year maintaining 77,000 
unnecessary or unused buildings across the United States.
    H.R. 2199 recognizes the need to accurately catalog and 
publicize the exact acreage and number of physical assets on 
our federal lands. This bill requires the Secretaries of the 
Interior and Agriculture to report their existing inventories 
in a publicly-available, searchable cadastre of federal real 
property and determine cost-saving measures through the 
elimination of unused or unnecessary buildings or parcels.

                            COMMITTEE ACTION

    H.R. 2199 was introduced on April 27, 2017, by Congressman 
Kevin Cramer (R-ND). The bill was referred to the Committee on 
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee 
on Federal Lands and the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral 
Resources. On May 23, 2017, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands 
held a hearing on the bill. On July 25, 2017, the Natural 
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittees 
were discharged by unanimous consent. No amendments were 
offered, and the bill was ordered favorably reported to the 
House of Representatives by unanimous consent on July 26, 2017.

            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 AND CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT

    1. Cost of Legislation and the Congressional Budget Act. 
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and (3) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and 
sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974, the Committee has received the following estimate for the 
bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                Washington, DC, September 22, 2017.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 2199, the Federal 
Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2017.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Jeff LaFave.
            Sincerely,
                                                Keith Hall,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.

H.R. 2199--Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2017

    Summary: H.R. 2199 would require the Department of the 
Interior (DOI) to develop and maintain a multipurpose inventory 
(cadastre) of all federal lands in the United States. Based on 
information provided by DOI and assuming appropriation of the 
necessary amounts, CBO estimates that implementing the 
legislation would cost about $95 million over the 2017-2022 
period. Enacting H.R. 2199 would not affect direct spending or 
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
    CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2199 would not increase 
net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four 
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
    H.R. 2199 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) 
and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal 
governments.
    Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated 
budgetary impact of H.R. 2199 is shown in the following table. 
The costs of this legislation fall within budget function 300 
(natural resources and environment).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
                                                      ----------------------------------------------------------
                                                        2017    2018    2019    2020    2021    2022   2017-2022
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 INCREASES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION
 
Estimated Authorization Level........................       0      20      20      20      20      20       100
Estimated Outlays....................................       0      15      20      20      20      20        95
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Basis of estimate: For this estimate, CBO assumes that H.R. 
2199 will be enacted near the end of 2017 and that the 
necessary amounts will be appropriated for each fiscal year. 
Estimated outlays are based on historical spending patterns for 
similar activities.
    H.R. 2199 would require DOI to create a cadastre of roughly 
20 million parcels of federal land in the United States. The 
bill would require that the agency make the inventory available 
on the Internet in a searchable, geo-enabled format. CBO 
expects that the agency would need to perform extensive work on 
about half (or 10 million) of the parcels in order to complete 
the cadastre. That work would include validating legal 
descriptions, analyzing existing land surveys, attributing land 
rights, and making parcel data compatible with a geographic 
information system (GIS). CBO expects that completing that work 
would take five years. Based on information provided by the 
agency, CEO estimates that the cost of performing that work 
would total about $10 per parcel and that completing the 
cadastre would cost a total of $95 million over the 2018-2022 
period. Those funds would be used to hire personnel and license 
the GIS software necessary to compile the cadastre.
    The bill also would authorize DOI to enter into cooperative 
agreements with states to include nonfederal parcels in the 
cadastre, The bill would require that states pay half the cost 
of including those parcels. Because CBO expects that DOI would 
not add nonfederal parcels to the cadastre until all federal 
parcels were included, we estimate that implementing that 
provision would not affect the federal budget until after 2022.
    Pay-As-You-Go considerations: None.
    Increase in long-term direct spending and deficits: CBO 
estimates that enacting H.R. 2199 would not increase net direct 
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 
10-year periods beginning in 2028.
    Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: H.R. 2199 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in UMRA and would benefit states by authorizing the use 
of federal funds in cost-sharing agreements with states to 
incorporate nonfederal lands into the inventory. Any costs 
incurred by states, including matching contributions, would 
result from participation in a voluntary federal program.
    Estimate prepared by: Federal costs: Jeff LaFave; Impact on 
state, local, and tribal governments: Jon Sperl; Impact on the 
private sector: Amy Petz.
    Estimate approved by: H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.
    2. 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 improve Federal land management, 
resource conservation, environmental protection, and use of 
Federal real property, by requiring the Secretary of the 
Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real 
property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date 
Federal land inventories.

                           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. This bill does not contain any 
directed rule makings.
    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]