II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 849 

To amend the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 to provide for the 

conduct of stewardship contracting projects, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 25, 2013 

Mr. BENNET (for himself, Mr. BAUCUS, and Mr. UDALL of Colorado) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 

to provide for the conduct of stewardship contracting 

projects, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Permanent Steward5 ship Contracting Authority Act of 2013’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. STEWARDSHIP END RESULT CONTRACTING 

2 PROJECTS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title VI of the Healthy Forests 

4 Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591) is amended by 

5 adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 602. STEWARDSHIP END RESULT CONTRACTING 

7 PROJECTS. 

8 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

9 ‘‘(1) CHIEF.—The term ‘Chief’ means the Chief 

10 of the Forest Service. 

11 ‘‘(2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘Director’ means 

12 the Director of the Bureau of Land Management. 

13 ‘‘(b) PROJECTS.—The Chief and the Director, via 

14 agreement or contract as appropriate, may enter into 

15 stewardship contracting projects with private persons or 

16 other public or private entities to perform services to 

17 achieve land management goals for the national forests 

18 and public lands that meet local and rural community 

19 needs. 

20 ‘‘(c) LAND MANAGEMENT GOALS.—The land man21 agement goals of a project under subsection (b) may in22 clude— 

23 ‘‘(1) road and trail maintenance or obliteration 

24 to restore or maintain water quality; 

25 ‘‘(2) soil productivity, habitat for wildlife and 

26 fisheries, or other resource values; 


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1 ‘‘(3) setting of prescribed fires to improve the 

2 composition, structure, condition, and health of 

3 stands or to improve wildlife habitat; 

4 ‘‘(4) removing vegetation or other activities to 

5 promote healthy forest stands, reduce fire hazards, 

6 or achieve other land management objectives; 

7 ‘‘(5) watershed restoration and maintenance; 

8 ‘‘(6) restoration and maintenance of wildlife 

9 and fish; or 

10 ‘‘(7) control of noxious and exotic weeds and re11 establishing native plant species. 

12 ‘‘(d) AGREEMENTS OR CONTRACTS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE.—A source 

14 for performance of an agreement or contract under 

15 subsection (b) shall be selected on a best-value basis, 

16 including consideration of source under other public 

17 and private agreements or contracts. 

18 ‘‘(2) CONTRACT FOR SALE OF PROPERTY.—A 

19 contract entered into under this section may, at the 

20 discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, be consid21 ered a contract for the sale of property under such 

22 terms as the Secretary may prescribe without regard 

23 to any other provision of law. 

24 ‘‘(3) TERM.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

2 subparagraph (B), the Chief and the Director 

3 may enter into a contract under subsection (b) 

4 in accordance with section 3903 of title 41, 

5 United States Code. 

6 ‘‘(B) MAXIMUM.—The period of the con7 tract under subsection (b) may exceed 5 years 

8 but may not exceed 10 years. 

9 ‘‘(4) OFFSETS.— 

10 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Chief and the Di11 rector may apply the value of timber or other 

12 forest products removed as an offset against the 

13 cost of services received under the agreement or 

14 contract described in subsection (b). 

15 ‘‘(B) METHODS OF APPRAISAL.—The value 

16 of timber or other forest products used as an 

17 offset under subparagraph (A)— 

18 ‘‘(i) shall be determined using appro19 priate methods of appraisal commensurate 

20 with the quantity of products to be re21 moved; and 

22 ‘‘(ii) may— 

23 ‘‘(I) be determined using a unit 

24 of measure appropriate to the con25 tracts; and 


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1 ‘‘(II) may include valuing prod2 ucts on a per-acre basis. 

3 ‘‘(5) RELATION TO OTHER LAWS.—Notwith4 standing subsections (d) and (g) of section 14 of the 

5 National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 

6 U.S.C. 472a), the Chief may enter into an agree7 ment or contract under subsection (b). 

8 ‘‘(6) CONTRACTING OFFICER.—Notwithstanding 

9 any other provision of law, the Secretary or the Sec10 retary of the Interior may determine the appropriate 

11 contracting officer to enter into and administer an 

12 agreement or contract under subsection (b). 

13 ‘‘(e) RECEIPTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief and the Director 

15 may collect monies from an agreement or contract 

16 under subsection (b) if the collection is a secondary 

17 objective of negotiating the contract that will best 

18 achieve the purposes of this section. 

19 ‘‘(2) USE.—Monies from an agreement or con20 tract under subsection (b)— 

21 ‘‘(A) may be retained by the Chief and the 

22 Director; and 

23 ‘‘(B) shall be available for expenditure 

24 without further appropriation at the project site 


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1 from which the monies are collected or at an2 other project site. 

3 ‘‘(3) RELATION TO OTHER LAWS.— 

4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 

5 other provision of law, the value of services re6 ceived by the Chief or the Director under a 

7 stewardship contract project conducted under 

8 this section, and any payments made or re9 sources provided by the contractor, Chief, or 

10 Director shall not be considered monies received 

11 from the National Forest System or the public 

12 lands. 

13 ‘‘(B) KNUTSON-VANDERBERG ACT.—The 

14 Act of June 9, 1930 (commonly known as the 

15 ‘Knutson-Vanderberg Act’) (16 U.S.C. 576 et 

16 seq.) shall not apply to any agreement or con17 tract under subsection (b). 

18 ‘‘(f) COSTS OF REMOVAL.—Notwithstanding the fact 

19 that a contractor did not harvest the timber, the Chief 

20 may collect deposits from a contractor covering the costs 

21 of removal of timber or other forest products under— 

22 ‘‘(1) the Act of August 11, 1916 (16 U.S.C. 

23 490); and 

24 ‘‘(2) and the Act of June 30, 1914 (16 U.S.C. 

25 498). 


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1 ‘‘(g) PERFORMANCE AND PAYMENT GUARANTEES.— 

2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief and the Director 

3 may require performance and payment bonds under 

4 sections 28.103–2 and 28.103–3 of the Federal Ac5 quisition Regulation, in an amount that the con6 tracting officer considers sufficient to protect the in7 vestment in receipts by the Federal Government 

8 generated by the contractor from the estimated 

9 value of the forest products to be removed under a 

10 contract under subsection (b). 

11 ‘‘(2) EXCESS OFFSET VALUE.—If the offset 

12 value of the forest products exceeds the value of the 

13 resource improvement treatments, the Chief and the 

14 Director may— 

15 ‘‘(A) collect any residual receipts under the 

16 Act of June 9, 1930 (commonly known as the 

17 ‘Knutson-Vanderberg Act’) (16 U.S.C. 576 et 

18 seq.); and 

19 ‘‘(B) apply the excess to other authorized 

20 stewardship projects. 

21 ‘‘(h) MONITORING AND EVALUATION.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief and the Director 

23 shall establish a multiparty monitoring and evalua24 tion process that accesses the stewardship con25 tracting projects conducted under this section. 


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1 ‘‘(2) PARTICIPANTS.—Other than the Chief and 

2 Director, participants in the process described in 

3 paragraph (1) may include— 

4 ‘‘(A) any cooperating governmental agen5 cies, including tribal governments; and 

6 ‘‘(B) any other interested groups or indi7 viduals. 

8 ‘‘(i) REPORTING.—Not later than 1 year after the 

9 date of enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, 

10 the Chief and the Director shall report to the Committee 

11 on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and 

12 the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representa13 tives on— 

14 ‘‘(1) the status of development, execution, and 

15 administration of agreements or contracts under 

16 subsection (b); 

17 ‘‘(2) the specific accomplishments that have re18 sulted; and 

19 ‘‘(3) the role of local communities in the devel20 opment of agreements or contract plans.’’. 

21 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 347 of the 

22 Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appro23 priations Act, 1999 (16 U.S.C. 2104 note; Public Law 

24 105–277) is repealed. 

Æ 


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