I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3463

To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within their 

borders in lieu of receiving five per centum of the proceeds of the 

sale of public land lying within said States as provided by their respective 

Enabling Acts. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 27, 2005

Mr. BISHOP of Utah (for himself, Mr. CANNON, Mr. CULBERSON, Mr. OTTER, 

Mr. HERGER, Mr. GIBBONS, and Mr. WALDEN of Oregon) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources 

A BILL

To authorize Western States to make selections of public 

land within their borders in lieu of receiving five per 

centum of the proceeds of the sale of public land lying 

within said States as provided by their respective Enabling Acts.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Action Plan for Public 

5 Lands and Education Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 
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1 (1) Western States, as a group, are falling be2 hind in education funding as measured by growth of 

3 real per pupil expenditures from 1979 to 1998. 

4 (2) Eleven of the 12 States with the lowest real 

5 growth in per pupil expenditures are Western States. 

6 (3) The growth rate of real per pupil expendi7 tures in the 13 Western States is less than half such 

8 rate in the 37 other States (28 percent versus 57 

9 percent). 

10 (4) One effect of less funding for public edu11 cation in the West is higher pupil-per-teacher ratios. 

12 (5) Ten of the twelve States with the largest 

13 pupil-per-teacher ratios are Western States. 

14 (6) On average, the 13 Western States have 3 

15 more students per classroom than the 37 other 

16 States. 

17 (7) Over the next 10 years, the rate of enroll18 ment growth is projected to be much higher in West19 ern States than in other States. 

20 (8) On average, the rate of enrollment growth 

21 of Western States is projected to increase dramati22 cally, while the rate of enrollment growth other 

23 States is projected to actually decrease. 
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1 (9) The State and local taxes of Western States 

2 as a percentage of personal income are as high as 

3 or higher than other States. 

4 (10) Despite the fact that Western States tax 

5 at a comparable rate and allocate as much of their 

6 budgets to public education as other States, Western 

7 States have lower real growth in per pupil expendi8 tures and have higher pupil per teacher ratios. 

9 (11) The Federal Government is the source and 

10 potential solver of the problem because of the enor11 mous amount of land the Federal Government owns 

12 in Western States. 

13 (12) All States east of an imaginary vertical 

14 line from Montana to New Mexico have, on average, 

15 4.1 percent of their land federally owned, while the 

16 Western States on average have 51.9 percent of 

17 their land federally owned. 

18 (13) The Acts enabling the people of territories 

19 of the American West to form their constitutions 

20 and State governments and providing for the admis21 sion of such States into the Union on equal footing 

22 with the original States, included a common provi23 sion of which the following example is typical: ‘‘That 

24 five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public 

25 land lying within said State, which shall be sold by 
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1 the United States subsequent to the admission of 

2 said State into the Union, after deducting all the ex3 penses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said 

4 State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest 

5 of which only shall be expended for the support of 

6 the common schools within said State.’’. 

7 (14) The plain language of these enabling acts 

8 proclaims that the public land ‘‘shall be sold by the 

9 United States’’ subsequent to the admission of the 

10 States into the Union. 

11 (15) The United States honored the foregoing 

12 language by selling public land within the Western 

13 States until the passage of the Federal Land Policy 

14 and Management Act of 1976, wherein Congress de15 clared that the policy of the United States was to re16 tain public land in Federal ownership and manage17 ment. 

18 (16) The United States has broken its solemn 

19 compact with the Western States and breached its 

20 fiduciary duty to the school children who are des21 ignated beneficiaries of the sale of pubic land under 

22 the terms of the respective enabling Acts of the 

23 Western States. 

24 (17) The current shortfall in funding public 

25 education in the Western States requires immediate 
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1 Congressional action to remedy the above-described 

2 discriminatory Federal land policy and prevent the 

3 further disadvantaging of the school children of the 

4 Western States. 

5 (18) The most efficient and cost effective rem6 edy now available to the United States is to grant 

7 to the Western States 5 percent of the remaining 

8 federal land located within each State, authorizing 

9 each State to select such land from the unappropri10 ated public land of the United States within the 

11 boundaries of said State as will satisfy the grant. 

12 SEC. 3. QUANTITY GRANTS TO WESTERN STATES FOR EDU13 CATION IMPROVEMENT. 

14 (a) QUANTITY LAND GRANTS.—Instead of receiving, 

15 for the support of the common schools, 5 percent of the 

16 proceeds of the sales of federally owned land lying within 

17 the Western States which have not been sold by the United 

18 States as of July 1, 2005, grants of land are hereby made 

19 to the Western States. The amount of land granted to 

20 each State shall be equal to 5 percent of the number of 

21 acres of federally owned land within the State as of July 

22 1, 2005. 

23 (b) SELECTION PROCESS.—

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each Western State shall 

25 select from the unappropriated public lands within 
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1 the borders of the State in such manner as the legis2 lature of the State may provide, land equal in acre3 age to five percent of the federally own land in the 

4 State as of July 1, 2005. 

5 (2) CALCULATION OF ACREAGE AND NOTIFICA6 TION OF STATE.—The Secretary shall calculate the 

7 exact acreage of federally owned land in each West8 ern State as of July 1, 2005, and designate the un9 appropriated public land, as defined herein, eligible 

10 for selection by the State. The Secretary shall com11 municate to each of the Western States the respec12 tive acreage calculation and designation of land eligi13 ble for selection not later than 1 year after the date 

14 of the enactment of this Act. 

15 (c) APPLICATION OF CERTAIN LAW.—Selection and 

16 transfer of land under this Act shall not be considered a 

17 major Federal action for the purposes of section 

18 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 

19 1969. 

20 (d) MINERAL AND OIL AND GAS RIGHTS.—

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—All mineral, oil, and gas 

22 rights to the land selected by the Western States 

23 under this Act shall become the property of the rel24 evant Western State unless the Federal lessee of the 

25 selected land is making royalty payments to the 
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1 United States from production of minerals, oil, or 

2 gas, whereupon the particular leasehold interest 

3 shall remain in the ownership of the United States 

4 until the leasehold interest terminates. After that 

5 termination; the mineral, oil, and gas rights shall be6 come the property of the relevant Western State. 

7 (2) SELECTION OF SURFACE RIGHTS.—Western 

8 States may select only the surface of eligible land if 

9 the land is located on subsurface mineral, oil, or gas 

10 deposits that are generating royalty payments to 

11 United States. The entire mineral, oil, and gas es12 tate shall become the property of the Western State 

13 upon termination of the Federal lease. 

14 (e) PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND.—All land selected 

15 by each of the Western States shall be held in trust by 

16 a State educational agency empowered to sell or lease such 

17 land, the proceeds of which shall be used as a permanent 

18 fund, the interest of which shall be expended only for the 

19 support of public education. 

20 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 

21 (1) The term ‘‘Western States’’ means Alaska, 

22 Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Mon23 tana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wash24 ington, and Wyoming. 
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1 (2) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 

2 of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as 

3 appropriate. 

4 (3) The term ‘‘State educational agency’’ means 

5 the agency of the State primarily responsible for the 

6 supervision of education. 

7 (4) The term ‘‘federally owned land’’ means all 

8 land held in the name of the United States or any 

9 agency thereof, including land held in trust, United 

10 States military reservations, Indian reservations, and 

11 any other land used for Federal purposes. 

12 (5) The term ‘‘unappropriated public lands’’ 

13 means any and all land under the management and 

14 control of the Bureau of Land Management or 

15 United States Forest Service, excluding land that 

16 is—

17 (A) held in trust; 

18 (B) located within a United States military 

19 reservation; 

20 (C) a unit of the National Park System; 

21 (D) a Wildlife Refuge; 

22 (E) a Wilderness Area designated by Con23 gress; or 

24 (F) a National Historic Site.

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