II

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1595

To repeal the emergency salvage timber sale program, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 6, 1996

Mr. BRADLEY (for himself, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. SIMON, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr.

GRAHAM, Mr. BRYAN, Mr. PELL, Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN, and Mr.

KERRY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To repeal the emergency salvage timber sale program, 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 ‘‘Restoration of Natural

5 Resources Laws on the Public Lands Act of 1996’’.

6 SEC. 2. REPEAL OF EMERGENCY SALVAGE TIMBER SALE

7 PROGRAM.

8 (a) DEFINITION OF SECRETARY CONCERNED.—In

9 this section, the term ‘‘Secretary concerned’’ means—
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1 (1) the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to

2 an activity involving land in the National Forest

3 System; and

4 (2) the Secretary of the Interior, with respect

5 to an activity involving land under the jurisdiction of

6 the Bureau of Land Management.

7 (b) REPEAL.—Section 2001 of Public Law 104–19

8 (109 Stat. 240; 16 U.S.C. 1611 note) is repealed.

9 (c) SUSPENSION.—

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any out11 standing judicial order or administrative decision in12 terpreting section 2001 of Public Law 104–19 (109

13 Stat. 240; 16 U.S.C. 1611 note) (as in existence

14 prior to the date of enactment of this Act), the Sec15 retary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Inte16 rior shall suspend each activity that was being un17 dertaken in whole or in part under the authority

18 provided in the section, unless the Secretary con19 cerned determines that the activity would have been

20 undertaken even in the absence of the subsection.

21 (2) RESUMPTION OF AN ACTIVITY.—The Sec22 retary concerned may not resume an activity sus23 pended under paragraph (1) until the Secretary con24 cerned determines that the activity (including any

25 modification after the date of enactment of this Act)
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1 complies with environmental and natural resource

2 laws.

3 SEC. 3. STUDIES.

4 (a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to pro5 vide factual information useful to the President and Con6 gress in setting funding and operational levels for the pub7 lic forests in order to ensure that the public forests are

8 operated so that the health of forest resources is secured

9 with ecological and financial effectiveness.

10 (b) NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE SITUATION.—

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agri12 culture, through the research branch of the Forest

13 Service, shall undertake a study to report on the na14 ture and extent of the forest health situation in the

15 National Forest System.

16 (2) NATURE.—The nature of forest health shall

17 be categorized into types of situations, including—

18 (A) overstocked stands of unmerchantable19 size trees;

20 (B) stands with excessive fuel loads;

21 (C) mixed conifer stands with an inappro22 priate mix of tree species; and

23 (D) combinations of the situations de24 scribed in subparagraphs (A) through (C).
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1 (3) EXTENT.—The extent of forest health shall

2 include acreage estimates of each situation type and

3 shall distinguish variations in severity.

4 (4) REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE MEASURE5 MENTS.—If feasible, the Secretary shall use rep6 resentative sample measurements with a specified

7 degree of confidence in extending the measurements

8 to the whole population.

9 (5) PRESENTATION.—The report shall present

10 data at the national forest or a comparable level and

11 shall be displayed geographically and tabularly.

12 (6) REVIEW.—The report shall be properly re13 viewed by the scientific community prior to trans14 mission under paragraph (7).

15 (7) TRANSMISSION.—The report shall be trans16 mitted to Congress not later than 1 year after the

17 date of enactment of this Act.

18 (c) ECOLOGICAL EFFICACY OF ACTIVITIES.—

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after

20 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of

21 Agriculture shall enter into a contract with the Na22 tional Academy of Sciences for the purpose of con23 ducting a study of the ecological and forest health

24 consequences of various activities intended, at least

25 in part, to improve forest health.
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1 (2) ACTIVITIES EXAMINED.—The activities ex2 amined under paragraph (1) shall include—

3 (A) site preparation for reforestation, arti4 ficial reforestation, natural regeneration, stand

5 release, precommercial thinning, fertilization,

6 other stand improvement activities, salvage har7 vesting, and brush disposal;

8 (B) historical as well as recent examples

9 and a variety of conditions in ecological regions;

10 and

11 (C) a comparison of various activities with12 in a watershed, including activities conducted

13 by other Federal land management agencies.

14 (3) TRANSMISSION.—The report shall be trans15 mitted to the Chief of the Forest Service and to

16 Congress not later than 2 years after the date of en17 actment of this Act.

18 (d) ECONOMIC EFFICACY OF ACTIVITIES.—

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller General of

20 the United States, through the General Accounting

21 Office, shall conduct a study of the Federal, State,

22 and local fiscal and other economic consequences of

23 activities intended, at least in part, to improve forest

24 health.
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1 (2) COORDINATION.—The study conducted

2 under this subsection shall be coordinated with the

3 study conducted under subsection (c)—

4 (A) to ensure that the same groups of ac5 tivities in the same geographic area are exam6 ined; and

7 (B) to develop historic as well as recent ef8 fects that illustrate financial and economic

9 trends.

10 (3) FEDERAL FISCAL EFFECTS.—In assessing

11 the Federal fiscal effects, the Comptroller General

12 shall distinguish the net effects on the Treasury of

13 the United States from changes in the balances in

14 the various special accounts and trust funds, includ15 ing appropriated funds used to conduct the plan16 ning, execution, sale administration, support from

17 other programs, regeneration, site restoration, agen18 cy overhead, and payments in lieu of taxes associ19 ated with timber cutting.

20 (4) TRANSMISSION.—The study shall be trans21 mitted to the Chief of the Forest Service and to

22 Congress not later than 2 years after the date of en23 actment of this Act.

24 (e) IMPROVEMENT OF ACTIVITIES.—In response to

25 the findings of the National Academy of Sciences and the
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1 Comptroller General under subsections (c) and (d), the

2 Chief of the Forest Service shall assess opportunities for

3 improvement of, and progress in improving, the ecological,

4 economic, and fiscal consequences and efficacy for each

5 national forest.

6 (f) FOREST SERVICE STUDY.—

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief of the Forest

8 Service shall conduct a study of alternative systems

9 for administering forest health-related activities, in10 cluding, modification of special account and trust

11 fund management and reporting, land management

12 service contracting, and government logging.

13 (2) SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES.—The

14 study shall compare and contrast the various alter15 natives with systems in existence on the date of the

16 study, including—

17 (A) ecological effects;

18 (B) forest health changes;

19 (C) Federal, State, and local fiscal and

20 other economic consequences; and

21 (D) opportunities for the public to be in22 volved in decisionmaking before activities are

23 undertaken.

24 (3) REQUIREMENTS OF STUDY.—To ensure the

25 validity of the study, in measuring the effect of the
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1 use of contracting, the study shall specify the costs

2 that contractors would bear for health care, retire3 ment, and other benefits afforded public employees

4 performing the same tasks.

5 (4) TRANSMITTAL.—The report shall be trans6 mitted to Congress not later than 1 year after the

7 studies conducted under subsections (c) and (d) are

8 transmitted to Congress.

9 (g) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The reports conducted

10 under this section shall be published in a form available

11 to the public at the same time the reports are transmitted

12 to Congress. Both a summary and a full report shall be

13 published.

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