69–006 

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multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date Federal land inventories, and 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develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date Federal land inventories.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 

2 

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 costsaving 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. 

3 

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, payas-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 cadasVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:58 Sep 26, 2017 Jkt 069006 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\HR322.XXX HR322
4 

tre, 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. 

5 

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

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

Æ