79–006

106TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session 106–899

HUNA TOTEM CORPORATION LAND EXCHANGE ACT

SEPTEMBER 26, 2000.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the

State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, from the Committee on Resources,

submitted the following

R E P O R T

together with

DISSENTING VIEWS

[To accompany S. 426]

[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

The Committee on Resources, to whom was referred the bill (S.

426) to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, to provide

for a land exchange between the Secretary of Agriculture and the

Huna Totem Corporation, 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 purposes of S. 426 are to amend the Alaska Native Claims

Settlement Act to provide for a land exchange between the Secretary of Agriculture and the Huna Totem Corporation and for

other purposes.

BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

S. 426 provides for a land exchange between the Huna Totem

Corporation, a Village Corporation in Southeast Alaska that was

organized under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

(ANCSA), and the United States.

The Huna Totem Corporation of the City of Hoonah in Southeast

Alaska was awarded lands pursuant to ANCSA. Some of these

lands have significant timber resources, and the Corporation has

been active in the timber industry because logging provides important economic benefits to its Native shareholders.
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A significant portion of Huna Totem’s property lies on part of the

local watershed and within view of the City because ANCSA mandated the Corporation’s land selection to be within or adjacent to

the core township enclosing the village. However, there is considerable controversy within Hoonah over potentially logging this property because of the proximity of the logging to the city and the watershed. Huna Totem would prefer to acquire land away from the

City, and by extension away from the local controversy, through an

equal-value land exchange with the United States.

S. 426 resolves the local problem through an equal-value land exchange. Under the bill, the Corporation transfers approximately

2,000 acres of the watershed/viewshed lands to the United States

in exchange for lands of an equal value and accessible to Hoonah,

selected from areas specified in the bill. The lands conveyed to the

United States under S. 426 are added to the Tongass National Forest. The bill also contains a provision prohibiting Huna Totem Corporation from exporting unprocessed logs from the new lands it acquires through the exchange.

In the 105th Congress, the Committee on Resources held hearings on and reported a similar bill, H.R. 3088, providing for the

same land exchange as that in S. 426. H.R. 3088 was not considered further.

For additional information, please see Senate Report 106–30.

COMMITTEE ACTION

S. 426 was introduced on February 12, 1999, by Senator Frank

Murkowski (R–AK). The bill passed the Senate with amendments

on April 19, 1999, by unanimous consent. In the House of Representatives, the bill was referred to the Committee on Resources.

On September 13, 2000, the Full Resources Committee met to consider the bill. No amendments were offered and the bill was ordered favorably reported by voice vote to the House of Representatives.

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 Resources’ oversight findings and recommendations are reflected in

the body of this report.

CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY STATEMENT

Article I, section 8 and Article IV, section 3, of the Constitution

of the United States grant Congress the authority to enact this bill.

COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII

1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(2) 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)(3)(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.
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2. 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, credit authority, or an increase

or decrease in tax expenditures. According to the Congressional

Budget Office, enactment of this bill could affect offsetting receipts

and result in an increase in direct spending of less than $500,000

a year, but that this ‘‘would not have a significant impact on the

federal budget.’’

3. Government Reform Oversight Findings. Under clause 3(c)(4)

of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee has received no report of oversight findings and recommendations from the Committee on Government Reform on this

bill.

4. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate. 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:

U.S. CONGRESS,

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE,

Washington, DC, September 15, 2000.

Hon. DON YOUNG,

Chairman, Committee on Resources,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 426, the Huna Totem Corporation Land Exchange Act.

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased

to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Megan Carroll.

Sincerely,

BARRY B. ANDERSON

(For Dan L. Crippen, Director).

Enclosure.

S. 426—Huna Totem Corporation Land Exchange Act

CBO estimates that enacting S. 426 would not have a significant

impact on the federal budget. Because the legislation could affect

offsetting receipts (a credit against direct spending), pay-as-you-go

procedures would apply, but we estimate that any increase in direct spending would total less than $500,000 a year. S. 426 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined

in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no significant costs on the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.

S. 426 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey the

surface estate to certain federal lands in the Tongass National Forest to the Huna Totem Corporation, and also to convey the subsurface estate to such federal lands to the Sealaska Corporation.

The lands to be conveyed would be selected by the two corporations

from federal lands depicted on the map described in the legislation

and dated September 1, 1997. The legislation also provides that the

Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska convey to the United States

approximately 2,000 acres of surface and subsurface estate.
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S. 426 does not specify the federal land to be conveyed to the

Huna Totem Corporation, but it provides that the exchange be on

the basis of equal value. Because the federal budget is on a cash

basis, the budgetary impact of the land exchange is measured by

its effect on the government’s cash flow, such as changes in offsetting receipts from timber harvests. CBO expects that enacting this

legislation could decrease offsetting receipts to the federal government. According to the Forest Service, the agency would generally

consider the area acquired from the corporation to be unsuitable for

future harvesting because it lies within the watershed and

viewshed for the city of Hoonah. Some of the federal land that

could be conveyed to the corporation under S. 426 currently does

not generate federal timber receipts because it has been logged recently; however, a portion of the federal land that could be conveyed is not currently being harvested because it has been set

aside as part of a conservation reserve under the Tongass National

Forest management plan. According to the Forest Service, if the

corporation harvested those areas following the exchange, then the

agency would be obliged under the forest management plan to reserve for conservation another area of federal land within the

Tongass National Forest that would otherwise be harvested under

current law. We estimate that any resulting loss of timber receipts

would be less than $500,000 a year over the 2001–2010 period.

On March 11, 1999, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 426,

the Huna Totem Corporation Public Interest Land exchange Act, as

ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural

Resources on March 4, 1999. The two versions of the legislation are

nearly identical, and our estimates of their costs are the same.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Megan Carroll. This

estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104–4

This bill contains no unfunded mandates.

PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW

This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or tribal law.

CHANGE IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of the

House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill,

as reported, as shown as follows (new matter is printed in italic

and existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in

roman):

ALASKA NATIVE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT

* * * * * * *

SEC. ll. HUNA TOTEM CORPORATION LAND EXCHANGE.

(a) GENERAL.—In exchange for lands and interests therein described in subsection (b), the Secretary of Agriculture shall, subject

to valid existing rights, convey to the Huna Totem Corporation the

surface estate and to Sealaska Corporation the subsurface estate of

the Federal lands identified by Huna Totem Corporation pursuant
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to subsection (c). The values of the lands and interests therein exchanged pursuant to this section shall be equal.

(b) The surface estate to be conveyed by Huna Totem Corporation

and the subsurface estate to be conveyed by Sealaska Corporation

to the Secretary of Agriculture are the municipal watershed lands

as shown on the map dated September 1, 1997, and labeled attachment A, and are further described as follows:

MUNICIPAL WATERSHED AND GREENBELT BUFFER T43S, R61E, C.R.M.

Portion of Section Approximate Acres

16 ...................................................................................................................... 2

21 ...................................................................................................................... 610

22 ...................................................................................................................... 227

23 ...................................................................................................................... 35

26 ...................................................................................................................... 447

27 ...................................................................................................................... 400

33 ...................................................................................................................... 202

34 ...................................................................................................................... 76

Approximate total ............................................................................................ 1,999.

(c) Within ninety (90) days of the receipt by the United States of

the conveyances of the surface estate and subsurface estate described

in subsection (b), Huna Totem Corporation shall be entitled to identify lands readily assessible to the Village of Hoonah and, where

possible, located on the road system to the Village of Hoonah, as depicted on the map dated September 1, 1997, and labeled Attachment

B. Huna Totem Corporation shall notify the Secretary of Agriculture

in writing which lands Huna Totem Corporation has identified.

(d) TIMING OF CONVEYANCE AND VALUATION.—The conveyance

mandated by subsection (a) by the Secretary of Agriculture shall

occur within ninety (90) days after the list of identified lands is submitted by Huna Totem Corporation pursuant to subsection (c).

(e) TIMBER MANUFACTURING; EXPORT RESTRICTION.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, timber harvested from land

conveyed to Huna Totem Corporation under this section shall not be

exported as unprocessed logs from Alaska, nor may Huna Totem

Corporation sell, trade, exchange, substitute, or otherwise convey

that timber to any person for the purpose of exporting that timber

from the State of Alaska.

(f) RELATION TO OTHER REQUIREMENTS.—The land conveyed to

Huna Totem Corporation and Sealaska Corporation under this section shall be considered, for all purposes, land conveyed under the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

(g) MAPS.—The maps referred to in this section shall be maintained on file in the Office of the Chief, United States Forest Service, and in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, Washington,

D.C. The acreage cited in this section is approximate, and if there

is any discrepancy between cited acreage and the land depicted on

the specified maps, the maps shall control. The maps do not constitute an attempt by the United States to convey State or private

land.
(6)

DISSENTING VIEWS

This same dubious land exchange was brought before the Committee in the 105th Congress. That bill failed to pass the House;

this one deserves to meet the same ignominious fate. [See: H.R.

3088, H. Rept. 105–784 (Dissenting views)].

We again oppose this legislation because it is contrary to the

public interest and imposes a fundamentally undesirable exchange

of lands upon the U.S. Forest Service. Under S. 426, the Forest

Service would be forced to accept lands nearby the Southeast Alaskan community of Hoonah that they do not want to acquire and do

not want to manage. To make matters worse, the Huna Corporation would be authorized to self-select and obtain lands from the

Tongass National Forest.

Simply put, the situation is this: the Huna corporation can not

long more lands near the community because of local opposition to

additional clear-cutting so they want to acquire and log more lands

from the national forest. Huna corporation has already logged the

vast majority of the 23,000 acres they received under the Alaska

Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. In effect, they want to unilaterally rewrite that settlement to obtain more desirable lands,

while foisting upon the Forest Service management responsibilities

for core lands around the village of Hoonah.

This is clearly not a case where Congress would ratify a mutually

negotiated land exchange. It’s not even clear how much national

forest land the Huna corporation would seek to obtain, since the

export restrictions in the bill make the Tongass land less valuable

for logging than the village lands the corporation currently owns.

In order to equalize exchange values under the terms of this bill,

Huna may argue that more than 2,000 acres of national forest

should be conveyed out of public ownership. Prime sitka spruce

logs, for example, may be a dozen times more valuable to the corporation if exported than if processed domestically. But if left

standing as old-growth national forest, without this exchange, the

values to future generations greatly exceed any short-term logging

profit.

S. 426, which seeks to have Congress impose an adversarial land

exchange on the Forest Service, has failed to change or improve

with age. Both the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior oppose

the bill and have stated that they will recommend a veto if it is

enacted by Congress. The House should reject this legislation.

GEORGE MILLER

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