II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1326

To establish a forage fee formula on lands under the jurisdiction of the

Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 30, (legislative day, JUNE 30), 1993

Mr. CAMPBELL (for himself, Mr. WALLOP, Mr. DECONCINI, Mr. CRAIG, Mr.

BRYAN, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. KEMPTHORNE, Mr. BENNETT, Mr. GORTON,

and Mr. MURKOWSKI) introduced the following bill; which was read twice

and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To establish a forage fee formula on lands under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior.

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

3 That this Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Forage

4 Fee Act of 1993’’.

5 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds and declares that—

7 (1) it is in the national interest that the public

8 lands are producing and continue to produce water

9 and soil conservation benefits, livestock forage, wild-
2

S 1326 IS

1 life forage and recreation and other multiple use op2 portunities;

3 (2) rangelands will continue to be stabilized and

4 improved long term by providing for cooperative

5 agreements, private, public partnerships and flexibil6 ity in management programs and agreements;

7 (3) to assure sound management and steward8 ship of the renewable resources it is imperative to

9 charge a fee that is reasonable and equitable and

10 represents the fair value of the forage provided;

11 (4) the intermingled private-public land owner12 ship patterns prevailing in much of the west create

13 a strong interdependence between public and private

14 lands for forage, water, and habitat for both wildlife

15 and livestock;

16 (5) the social and economic infrastructure of

17 many rural communities and stability of job oppor18 tunities in many areas of rural America are highly

19 independent on the protection of the value of pri20 vately held production units on Federal lands.

21 SEC. 2. ENVIRONMENTAL AND LAND USE REQUIREMENTS.

22 Unless contrary to this statute, all grazing operations

23 conducted on any Federal lands shall be subject to all ap24 plicable Federal, State, and local laws, including but not

25 limited to:
3

S 1326 IS

1 (1) Animal Damage Control Act (7 U.S.C.

2 426–426b).

3 (2) Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (50

4 Stat. 522) as amended.

5 (3) Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401–7642) as

6 amended.

7 (4) Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C.

8 1531–1544) as amended.

9 (5) Federal Advisory Committee Act (86 Stat.

10 770), as amended.

11 (6) Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement

12 Act of 1977 (92 Stat. 3).

13 (7) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and

14 Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 136–136y), as amended.

15 (8) Federal Land Policy and Management Act

16 of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.).

17 (9) Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33

18 U.S.C. 1251 1387), as amended.

19 (10) Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re20 sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600–

21 1614).

22 (11) Granger-Thye Act (64 Stat. 82).

23 (12) Independent Offices Appropriations Act of

24 1952 (31 U.S.C. 9701), as amended, title V.
4

S 1326 IS

1 (13) Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960

2 (16 U.S.C. 528–531).

3 (14) National Environmental Policy Act of

4 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321–4370a), as amended.

5 (15 National Forest Management Act of 1976

6 (16 U.S.C. 1600, 1611–1614).

7 (16) Public Rangelands Improvement Act of

8 1978 (92 Stat. 1803).

9 (17) Taylor Grazing Act (48 Stat. 1269), as

10 amended.

11 (18) Wilderness Act (78 Stat. 890), as amend12 ed.

13 SEC. 3. FEE SCHEDULE.

14 (a) For the purpose of this section the terms:

15 (1) ‘‘Sixteen Western States’’ means WA, CA,

16 ID, NV, NM, WY, CO, KS, SD, ND, NE, OR, OK,

17 AZ, UT and MT.

18 (2) ‘‘AUM’’ means an animal unit month as

19 that term is used in the Public Rangeland Improve20 ment Act (92 Stat. 1803);

21 (3) ‘‘Authorized Federal AUMs’’ means all ‘‘al22 lotted AUMs’’ reported by BLM and ‘‘permitted to

23 graze AUMs’’ reported by USFS.

24 (4) ‘‘WAPLLR’’ means the weighted average

25 private land lease rate determined by multiplying the
5

S 1326 IS

1 private land lease rate reported by the Economic Re2 search Service for the previous calendar year for

3 each of the sixteen Western States by the total num4 ber of authorized Federal AUMs, as defined in sec5 tion 3(a)(3), in each State for the previous fiscal

6 year, then that result divided by the total number of

7 authorized Federal AUMs for the sixteen Western

8 States. These individual State results are then added

9 together and divided by 16 to yield a weighted aver10 age private land lease rate for that year.

11 (5) ‘‘Report’’ means the report titled ‘‘Grazing

12 Fee Review and Evaluation Update of the 1986

13 Final Report’’ dated April 30, 1992 and prepared by

14 the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture.

15 (6) ‘‘Nonfee cost differential’’ means a value

16 calculated annually by the Secretaries by multiplying

17 the weighted difference in nonfee costs per AUM be18 tween public land and private land by the Input Cost

19 Index (ICI) determined annually by the Department

20 of Agriculture. The weighted difference in nonfee

21 costs is a factor of 0.552 determined by deducting

22 the private AUM nonfee costs (as outlined on page

23 58 of the report) from the public AUM nonfee costs

24 for cattle times 4, added to the result of deducting

25 private AUM nonfee costs from public AUM nonfee
6

S 1326 IS

1 costs for sheep times 1, then that result divided by

2 5.’’

3 (7) ‘‘Net production differential’’ is the percent4 age calculated annually by dividing the cash receipts

5 per cow for Federal permittee livestock producers by

6 the cash receipts per cow for western non-Federal

7 livestock producers in the sixteen Western States as

8 surveyed by the Economic Research Service in an9 nual cost of production surveys (COPS).

10 (8) ‘‘PLFVR’’ means the private lease forage

11 value ratio determined by dividing the average of the

12 1964–1968 base years’ private land lease rate into

13 the forage value portion of the private land lease

14 rate of $1.78 as determined in the 1966 western

15 livestock grazing survey.

16 (b) The Secretaries of the Department of Agriculture

17 and the Department of the Interior shall calculate annu18 ally the Federal forage fee by calculating the average of

19 the WALLPR for the preceding three years; multiplying

20 it by the PLFVR; then deducting from that result the

21 nonfee cost differential; and multiplying that result by the

22 net production differential. For each year that this cal23 culation is made, all data used for calculating this fee shall

24 come from the calendar year previous to the year for which
7

S 1326 IS

1 the fee is being calculated unless specified otherwise in the

2 above calculations.

3 (c) The Federal forage fee shall apply to all author4 ized Federal AUMs under the jurisdiction of the United

5 States Department of Agriculture and the United States

6 Department of the Interior.

7 (d) For the first year that the Secretaries calculate

8 the Federal forage fee, the fee shall not be greater than

9 125 percent, or less than 75 percent of the fee calculated

10 for the previous year pursuant to Executive Order 12548

11 dated February 14, 1986. For each year after the first

12 year that the Secretaries calculate the Federal forage fee,

13 the fee shall not be greater than 125 percent, or less than

14 75 percent of the Federal forage fee calculated for the pre15 vious year.

16 (e) The survey of nonfee costs used to calculate the

17 nonfee cost differential shall be updated periodically by the

18 Secretaries so as to reflect as accurately as possible the

19 actual nonfee costs incurred by the cattle and sheep indus20 try that utilizes public lands in the sixteen Western States.

21 The results of the updated survey shall be incorporated

22 into the calculation of the Non Fee Cost Differential as

23 they become available.

Æ