79–006

106TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session 106–847

LINCOLN COUNTY LAND ACT OF 2000

SEPTEMBER 14, 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

[To accompany H.R. 2752]

[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

The Committee on Resources, to whom was referred the bill

(H.R. 2752) to give Lincoln County, Nevada, the right to purchase

at fair market value certain public land located within that county,

and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as

amended do pass.

The amendments are as follows:

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lincoln County Land Act of 2000’’.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

(1) Lincoln County, Nevada, encompasses an area of 10,132 square miles of

the State of Nevada;

(2) approximately 98 percent of the County is owned by the Federal Government;

(3) the city of Mesquite, Nevada, needs land for an organized approach for expansion to the north;

(4) citizens of the County would benefit through enhanced county services and

schools from the increased private property tax base due to commercial and residential development;

(5) the County would see improvement to the budget for the county and

school services through the immediate distribution of sale receipts from the Secretary selling land through a competitive bidding process;

(6) a cooperative approach among the Bureau of Land Management, the

County, the City, and other local government entities will ensure continuing

communication between those entities;

(7) the Federal Government will be fairly compensated for the sale of public

land; and

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(8) the proposed Caliente Management Framework Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement for the Management of Desert Tortoise Habitat Plan

identify specific public land as being suitable for disposal.

(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—

(1) to provide for the orderly disposal of certain public land in the County;

and

(2) to provide for the acquisition of environmentally sensitive land in the

State of Nevada.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) CITY.—The term ‘‘City’’ means the city of Mesquite, Nevada.

(2) COUNTY.—The term ‘‘County’’ means Lincoln County, Nevada.

(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of the Interior.

(4) SPECIAL ACCOUNT.—The term ‘‘special account’’ means the account in the

Treasury of the United States established under section 5.

SEC. 4. DISPOSAL OF LAND.

(a) DISPOSAL.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this

Act, notwithstanding the land use planning and land sale requirements contained in sections 202 and 203 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act

of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1711, 1712), the Secretary, in cooperation with the County

and the City, in accordance with this Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), and other applicable law, and subject

to valid existing rights, shall dispose of the land described in subsection (b) in

a competitive bidding process, at a minimum, for fair market value.

(2) TIMING.—The Secretary shall dispose of—

(A) the land described in subsection (b)(1)(A) not later than 1 year after

the date of enactment of this Act; and

(B) the land described in subsection (b)(1)(B) not later than 5 years after

the date of enactment of this Act.

(b) LAND DESCRIPTION.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The land referred to in subsection (a) is the land depicted

on the map entitled ‘‘Public Lands Identified for Disposal in Lincoln County,

Nevada’’ and dated July 24, 2000, consisting of—

(A) the land identified on the map for disposal within 1 year, comprising

approximately 4,817 acres; and

(B) the land identified on the map for disposal within 5 years, comprising

approximately 8,683 acres.

(2) MAP.—The map described in paragraph (1) shall be available for public

inspection in the Ely Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management.

(c) SEGREGATION.—Subject to valid existing rights, the land described in subsection (b) is segregated from all forms of entry and appropriation (except for competitive sale) under the public land laws, including the mining laws, and from operation of the mineral leasing and geothermal leasing laws.

(d) COMPLIANCE WITH LOCAL PLANNING AND ZONING.—The Secretary shall ensure

that qualified bidders intend to comply with—

(1) County and City zoning ordinances; and

(2) any master plan for the area developed and approved by the County and

City.

SEC. 5. DISPOSITION OF PROCEEDS.

(a) LAND SALES.—Of the gross proceeds of sales of land under this Act in a fiscal

year—

(1) 5 percent shall be paid directly to the State of Nevada for use in the general education program of the State;

(2) 10 percent shall be returned to the County for use as determined through

normal county budgeting procedures, with emphasis given to support of schools,

of which no amount may be used in support of litigation against the Federal

Government; and

(3) the remainder shall be deposited in a special account in the Treasury of

the United States (referred to in this section as the ‘‘special account’’) for use

as provided in subsection (b).

(b) AVAILABILITY OF SPECIAL ACCOUNT.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Amounts in the special account (including amounts earned

as interest under paragraph (3)) shall be available to the Secretary of the Interior, without further Act of appropriation, and shall remain available until expended, for—

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(A) inventory, evaluation, protection, and management of unique archaeological resources (as defined in section 3 of the Archaeological Resources

Protection Act of 1979 (16 U.S.C. 470bb)) in the County;

(B) development of a multispecies habitat conservation plan in the County;

(C)(i) reimbursement of costs incurred by the Nevada State Office and the

Ely Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management in preparing sales

under this Act, or other authorized land sales within the County, including

the costs of land boundary surveys, compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), appraisals, environmental and cultural clearances, and any public notice; and

(ii) processing public land use authorizations and rights-of-way stemming

from development of the conveyed land; and

(D) the cost of acquisition of environmentally sensitive land or interests

in such land in the State of Nevada, with priority given to land outside

Clark County.

(2) ACQUISITION FROM WILLING SELLERS.—An acquisition under paragraph

(1)(D) shall be made only from a willing seller and after consultation with the

State of Nevada and units of local government under the jurisdiction of which

the environmentally sensitive land is located.

(c) INVESTMENT OF SPECIAL ACCOUNT.—All funds deposited as principal in the

special account shall earn interest in the amount determined by the Secretary of

the Treasury on the basis of the current average market yield on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States of comparable maturities.

SEC. 6. ACQUISITIONS.

(a) DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE LAND.—In this section, the term

‘‘environmentally sensitive land’’ means land or an interest in land, the acquisition

of which by the United States would, in the judgment of the Secretary—

(1) promote the preservation of natural, scientific, aesthetic, historical, cultural, watershed, wildlife, and other values contributing to public enjoyment

and biological diversity;

(2) enhance recreational opportunities and public access;

(3) provide the opportunity to achieve better management of public land

through consolidation of Federal ownership; or

(4) otherwise serve the public interest.

(b) ACQUISITIONS.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—After the consultation process has been completed in accordance with subsection (c), the Secretary may acquire with the proceeds of the

special account environmentally sensitive land and interests in environmentally

sensitive land. Land may not be acquired under this section without the consent

of the landowner.

(2) USE OF OTHER FUNDS.—Funds made available from the special account

may be used with any other funds made available under any other provision

of law.

(c) CONSULTATION.—Before initiating efforts to acquire land under this subsection,

the Secretary shall consult with the State of Nevada and with local government

within whose jurisdiction the land is located, including appropriate planning and

regulatory agencies, and with other interested persons, concerning the necessity of

making the acquisition, the potential impacts on State and local government, and

other appropriate aspects of the acquisition.

(d) ADMINISTRATION.—On acceptance of title by the United States, land and interests in land acquired under this section that is within the boundaries of a unit of

the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, National Trails System, National Wilderness Preservation System, any other system established by Act of Congress, or

any national conservation or national recreation area established by Act of

Congress—

(1) shall become part of the unit or area without further action by the Secretary; and

(2) shall be managed in accordance with all laws and regulations and land

use plans applicable to the unit or area.

Amend the title so as to read:

A bill to direct the Secretary of Interior to sell certain public land in Lincoln

County through a competitive process.

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PURPOSE OF THE BILL

The purpose of H.R. 2752 is to give Lincoln County, Nevada, the

right to purchase at fair market value certain public land located

within that county, and for other purposes.

BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

H.R. 2752 would grant Lincoln County, Nevada, the exclusive

right to purchase pieces of public land, at fair market value, for a

ten-year period. The bill would also withdraw such land from all

forms of entry and appropriation under public land laws, including

the mining laws, and from operation of the mineral leasing and

geothermal laws during the ten years.

The gross proceeds of these sales would then be placed in several

funds to be used for a number of purposes: (1) five percent of the

proceeds would be paid directly to the State of Nevada for use in

the general education program of the State; (2) ten percent shall

be returned to Lincoln County to be used for normal budgeting procedures, with emphasis given to supporting public schools; and (3)

the remainder shall be deposited in a special account in the Treasury of the United States.

Located in southeastern Nevada, Lincoln County encompasses

6.8 million acres, making it the third largest in the State. Despite

its size, Lincoln County remains sparsely populated, and nearly 90

percent of the land is under federal ownership. This pattern of private ownership mixed with public lands poses many problems for

land managers. H.R. 2752 would help resolve this problem by allowing some of these lands to be made available to the private sector. The increase of private lands would also increase the revenue

for county tax rolls, thereby providing much needed resources to

Lincoln County’s schoolchildren.

COMMITTEE ACTION

H.R. 2752 was introduced by Congressman Jim Gibbons (R–NV)

on August 5, 1999. The bill was referred to the Committee on Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands and the Subcommittee on Energy

and Mineral Resources. On July 13, 2000, the Subcommittee on

National Parks and Public Lands held a hearing on the bill. On

July 26, 2000, the Resources Committee met to consider the bill.

Both Subcommittees were discharged from further consideration of

the bill by unanimous consent. Mr. Gibbons offered an amendment

in the nature of a substitute that expands the amount of land

available for sale and requires the Bureau of Land Management to

sell the land to the highest bidder, not necessarily the Lincoln

County government. The amendment was adopted by voice vote. No

further amendments were offered and the bill, as amended was ordered favorably reported to the House of Representatives by voice

vote.

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.

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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.

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 will yield offsetting receipts

over the 2001–2005 time period, and increase net direct spending

over the 2001–2010 time period.

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:

U.S. CONGRESS,

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE,

Washington, DC, August 31, 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 H.R. 2752, the Lincoln County

Land Act of 2000.

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.

H.R. 2752—Lincoln County Land Act of 2000

Summary: H.R. 2752 would accelerate the timing of certain land

sales in Nevada and would allow the proceeds to be spent without

further appropriation. CBO estimates that enacting this bill would

increase net direct spending by $2 million over the 2001–2005 period and by a total of $16 million over the next 15 years. Because

the bill would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures

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would apply. We estimate that implementing H.R. 2752 would not

have a significant impact on discretionary spending.

H.R. 2752 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: For this estimate,

CBO assumes that H.R. 2752 will be enacted near the start of fiscal year 2001. The estimated budgetary impact of H.R. 2752 is

shown in the following table. The costs of this legislation fall within budget functions 300 (natural resources and environment) and

800 (general government).

By fiscal year, in millions of dollars—

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

CHANGES IN DIRECT SPENDING

Net receipts from sale of Federal lands: 1

Estimated budget authority ................................................................. ¥4 ¥1 ¥2 ¥1 ¥1

Estimated outlays ................................................................................ ¥4 ¥1 ¥2 ¥1 ¥1

New direct spending:

Estimated budget authority ................................................................. 1 2 2 3 3

Estimated outlays ................................................................................ 1 2 2 3 3

Net change in direct spending:

Estimated budget authority ................................................................. ¥31022

Estimated outlays ................................................................................ ¥31022

1 Estimates of net receipts include payments to the state of Nevada as authorized under current law.

Basis of estimate

H.R. 2752 would direct the Secretary of the Interior to sell, for

fair market value through a competitive bidding process, approximately 13,500 acres of federal lands located within Lincoln County,

Nevada, and administered by the Bureau of Land Management

(BLM). The bill would require the Secretary to sell 4,817 acres of

those lands within one year and the rest within five years. The bill

would direct the Secretary to pay 5 percent of the proceeds from

those sales to the state of Nevada (as provided under current law)

and another 10 percent to Lincoln County. The rest would be deposited in an interest-bearing account and could be spent by the

Secretary, without further appropriation, for acquiring environmentally sensitive lands in Nevada and other resource management activities.

Based on information from BLM, CBO estimates that enacting

H.R. 2752 would increase net direct spending by $2 million over

the 2001–2005 period and by a total of $16 million over the next

15 years. This estimate includes the impact of provisions that

would accelerate land sales that otherwise would occur over a

longer period, as well as the cost of provisions that would result in

new direct spending. In particular, the bill would incur net direct

spending costs because it would allow the Secretary of the Interior

to spend receipts from land sales that could not be spent under current law.

Acceleration of land sales

According to BLM, the lands that would be sold under this bill

already have been identified for disposal under current law, and

the agency plans to sell those lands over the next 15 years. Based

on information from BLM, we estimate that, under current law, net

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proceeds from the sale of those lands would total about $15 million,

of which about $5 million would be collected over the 2001–2005

period and $10 million in later years.

By directing the Secretary to sell all the lands within five years,

H.R. 2752 would accelerate the collection of those proceeds and

subsequent payments to Nevada. Based on information from BLM,

we estimate that the sales would yield net offsetting receipts totaling about $14 million over the 2001–2005 period. (That amount is

lower than our estimate of receipts under current law because we

expect that the sales price of the lands would increase in future

years due to inflation and appreciation.) Thus, we estimate that enacting this bill would result in a near-term increase in offsetting

receipts of $9 million, which would be more than offset by forgone

receipts of $10 million over the 2006–2015 period. CBO’s estimate

of the annual change in net proceeds reflects the timing of the

sales outline in the bill.

New direct spending

CBO estimates that spending the proceeds from the accelerated

land sales (plus interest) would cost about $15 million over the

2001–2010 period. Under current law, net proceeds from the sale

of federal lands are deposited in the Treasury and are unavailable

for spending. H.R. 2752 contains two provisions that would increase direct spending of those net receipts. First, the bill would require that 10 percent of the gross proceeds from the sale of land

under the bill be paid to Lincoln County. CBO estimates that such

payments would total about $1 million over the 2001–2005 period.

Second, under H.R. 2752, the remaining sale proceeds would be deposited in an interest-bearing account and could be spent by the

Secretary, without further appropriation. The Secretary could use

this money to cover certain administrative costs, support activities

related to archaeological resources and habitat conservation in the

county, and acquire environmentally sensitive land in Nevada.

Based on information from BLM, CBO estimates that the agency

would spend a total of $14 million over the 2001–2010 period for

those activities.

Pay-as-you-go considerations: The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act sets up pay-as-you-go procedures for legislation affecting direct spending or receipts. The new changes in

outlays that are subject to pay-as-you-go procedures are shown in

the following table. For the purposes of enforcing pay-as-you-go

procedures, only the effects in the current year, the budget year,

and the succeeding four years are counted.

By fiscal year, in millions of dollars—

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Changes in outlays .............................. 0 ¥3102232211

Changes in receipts ............................. Not applicable

Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: H.R. 2752 contains

no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in

UMRA and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. Lincoln County would benefit from enactment of this bill,

because it would receive a portion of the proceeds from the land

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sales, and because the land, if sold to private parties, would be

added to the county’s tax base.

Estimate prepared by: Federal costs: Megan Carroll; Impact on

State, local, and tribal governments: Marjorie Miller; Impact on the

private sector; Lauren Marks.

Estimate 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 State, local, or tribal law.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

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

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