II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1797

To amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, to provide for a land

conveyance to the City of Craig, Alaska, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 26, 1999

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

referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, to provide for a land conveyance to the City of Craig, Alaska,

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 FINDINGS.—Congress finds and declares that:

4 The Alaska Statehood Act of 1959 (sec. 6(a))

5 granted 400,000 acres of national forest land to the

6 State of Alaska for the purpose of furthering devel7 opment of and expansion of communities. In 1969,

8 the State of Alaska selected 17,040 acres of this

9 Federal land grant at the City of Craig’s request,
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1 but this and other selections were not approved by

2 the U.S. Forest Service.

3 On December 18, 1971, the Alaska Native

4 Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was enacted to set5 tle outstanding Native aboriginal claims to lands in

6 the State of Alaska. The settlement included the di7 rection to convey certain lands to Alaska Native vil8 lage corporations located in Southeast Alaska. These

9 conveyances included all of the public land selected

10 around the City of Craig by the State of Alaska in

11 1969.

12 Pursuant to ANCSA, the Federal Government

13 conveyed 3,960 acres of public land within the City

14 of Craig, and all public land surrounding the com15 munity, to two Native village corporations. These

16 adjoining conveyances occupy 93 percent of the

17 4,258 acres within Craig’s city limits. Outside of the

18 existing 200-acre Craig townsite, no other land with19 in 10 miles of the Craig city limits has been avail20 able for selection under the Alaska Statehood Act of

21 1959.

22 In the Alaska National Interest Lands Con23 servation Act (ANILCA), Congress exempted Native

24 corporations from municipal taxation of their under25 developed land, and added a tax recapture provision
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1 (43 U.S.C.A. sec. 1636(d)(5)) which acts as a fur2 ther disincentive to development of Native village

3 corporation land.

4 Under the Alaska State law, incorporated mu5 nicipalities are entitled to a share of available State

6 land within their corporate limits. However, the pas7 sage of ANCSA and a set of circumstances experi8 enced by no other municipality in Alaska, which in9 cludes Federal land conveyances to two adjoining

10 Native village corporations, has prevented the City

11 of Craig from acquiring a State land entitlement.

12 Since 1971, the City of Craig has grown from

13 a population of 250 people to nearly 2,500 people

14 and its demographics has changed making it dif15 ficult for Craig to qualify for many programs en16 acted by Congress to provide assistance to villages

17 with a majority of Alaska Native populations.

18 Tax provisions of Federal law and Federal land

19 conveyances have had the unintended effect of pre20 venting the City of Craig from exercising its govern21 mental powers to tax 93 percent of the land within

22 the municipality, and to receive any of the Federal

23 land grant promised at Alaska statehood for commu24 nity expansion and development.
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Craig Municipal Eq3 uity Act of 1999’’.

4 SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION TO CONVEY LANDS.

5 (a) GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture shall,

6 subject to valid existing rights, convey to the City of Craig

7 all Federal interests in lands identified in subsection (b).

8 (b) LEGAL DESCRIPTION.—Control Lake/Big Salt

9 Lake Road Corridor:

10 All Federal land in the following described pro11 tracted and partially surveyed townships in the Cop12 per River Meridian, Alaska:

13 COPPER RIVER MERIDIAN, ALASKA

14 T. 71 S., R. 81 E.

Section 24, E1 15 ⁄2;

Section 25, E1⁄2, S1⁄2SW1 16 ⁄4;

17 Section 36.

18 Containing 1360 acres, more or less.

19 T. 71 S., R. 82 E.

Section 19, S1⁄2SW1 20 ⁄4;

Section 29, W1⁄4NW1⁄4, N1⁄2SW1 21 ⁄4;

22 Section 30, All;

23 Section 31, All.

24 Containing 1500 acres, more or less.

25 T. 72 S., R. 82 E.

Section 5, SW1⁄4NW1⁄4, W1⁄2, SW1 26 ⁄4;
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1 Section 6, All;

Section 7, NE1⁄4NE1 2 ⁄4;

Section 8, W1⁄2, SW1⁄4SE1 3 ⁄4;

Section 17, NW1⁄4NW1⁄4, E1⁄2NW1 4 ⁄4,

NE1⁄4SW1⁄4, W1⁄2NE1⁄4, NW1⁄4SE1⁄4, S1⁄2SE1 5 ⁄4;

Section 20, NE1 6 ⁄4.

7 Containing 1672 acres, more or less.

8 Aggregating 4532 acres, more or less.

9 (c) TIMING OF CONVEYANCE AND PROVIDING FOR

10 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ESCROW ACCOUNT.—The

11 Secretary of Agriculture shall convey the land mandated

12 by subsection (a) within ninety (90) days after the date

13 of enactment of this Act. The Secretary shall establish an

14 escrow account to hold any and all proceeds derived on

15 or after the date of enactment of this Act from contracts,

16 leases, permits, rights-of-way or easements pertaining to

17 the land to be conveyed, and provide for disbursement of

18 those funds, plus interest, to the City of Craig when the

19 land is conveyed.

20 (d) TIMBER, MANUFACTURING; EXPORT RESTRIC21 TION.—Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, tim22 ber harvested from land conveyed to the City of Craig

23 under this section shall not be exported as unprocessed

24 logs from Alaska, nor may the City of Craig sell, trade,

25 exchange, substitute, or otherwise convey that timber to
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1 any person for the purpose of exporting that timber from

2 the State of Alaska.

3 (e) RELATION TO OTHER REQUIREMENTS.—Not4 withstanding any other provisions of law, the land con5 veyed to the City of Craig under this section shall be con6 sidered in lieu of land not conveyed at statehood for the

7 purpose of furthering development of and expansion of the

8 City of Craig. This grant is not subject to the provisions

9 of the Alaska Statehood Act, nor does it limit or restrict

10 the State of Alaska’s land entitlement under that Act.

11 (f) MAPS.—The maps referred to in this section shall

12 be maintained on file in the Office of the Chief, United

13 States Forest Service, and in the Office of the Secretary

14 of the Interior, Washington, DC. The acreage cited in this

15 section is approximate, and if there is any discrepancy be16 tween cited acreage and the land depicted on the specified

17 maps, the maps shall control. The maps do not constitute

18 an attempt by the United States to convey State of Alaska

19 or private land.

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