H. R. 5443 

One Hundred Eighteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-four 

An Act 

To establish a policy regarding appraisal and valuation services for real property 

for a transaction over which the Secretary of the Interior has jurisdiction, and 

for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating Appraisals and 

Conservation Efforts Act’’ or the ‘‘AACE Act’’. 

SEC. 2. APPRAISAL AND VALUATION SERVICES FOR REAL PROPERTY. 

(a) LICENSE, CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENT.—A covered 

appraiser needs to be licensed or certified in only 1 State to perform 

appraisal or valuation services for real property in any State for 

a transaction over which the Secretary has jurisdiction. 

(b) USE OF NON-FEDERAL COVERED APPRAISERS.—If the Secretary uses a non-Federal covered appraiser to perform appraisal 

or valuation services for real property for a transaction described 

in subsection (a), the Secretary— 

(1) shall, to the maximum extent practicable, use a nonFederal covered appraiser who is a certified general real property appraiser licensed in a State in which the real property 

that is the subject of the transaction is located; and 

(2) may only use a non-Federal covered appraiser who 

is a certified general real property appraiser licensed in a 

State other than one in which the real property that is the 

subject of the transaction is located if a non-Federal covered 

appraiser described in paragraph (1) is, as determined by the 

Secretary— 

(A) unavailable to complete an assignment within a 

reasonable period of time; 

(B) not assignment qualified; or 

(C) not cost competitive. 

(c) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter for at least the following 4 years, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 

that includes the following: 

(1) A comparison using quantitative data of— 

(A) the number of requests for appraisal and valuation 

services received by the Department during the reporting 

period and the number of requests for such services 

received by the Department in each of the 5 years before 

the reporting period; and 
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(B) the amount of time required for the Department 

to complete a request for appraisal or valuation services 

before the date of the enactment of this section and after 

the date of the enactment of this section. 

(2) A qualitative assessment of the impact of subsection 

(a) in providing flexibility to the Secretary when contracting 

with non-Federal covered appraisers. 

(3) Recommendations, if any, for congressional action that 

could help the Department operate more efficiently or overcome 

challenges with respect to timely completion of requests for 

appraisal or valuation services while ensuring the independence, impartiality, and objectivity of such services. 

(4) An overview of the workforce of the Department with 

regard to appraisal and valuation services provided by the 

Department, including hiring and staffing during the reporting 

period with respect to employees and contractors of the Department. 

(5) A complete list of cases in which the authority granted 

under section 2 of this Act was used during the reporting 

period, describing for each case the specific criteria used to 

satisfy the conditions of this Act. 

(d) STATUTORY CLARIFICATIONS.— 

(1) APPLICABILITY OF RELEVANT LAWS AND REGULATIONS.— 

Except as provided in paragraph (3), nothing in this section 

shall be interpreted to affect the application of any Federal 

or State law or regulation to a non-Federal covered appraiser 

with regard to the performance by such non-Federal covered 

appraiser of appraisal and valuation services for real property. 

(2) JURISDICTION REQUIREMENT.—Nothing in this section 

shall be interpreted to authorize a non-Federal covered 

appraiser to perform appraisal and valuation services for real 

property in a State in which such non-Federal covered appraiser 

is not licensed or certified to perform such services except 

to the extent that such services are performed for a transaction 

over which the Secretary has jurisdiction. 

(3) NONAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN RELEVANT LAWS AND

REGULATIONS.—Any provision of a Federal or State law or 

regulation enacted before the date of the enactment of this 

section that requires a covered appraiser to be licensed or 

certified in a specific State to perform appraisal or valuation 

services for real property in that State shall not apply to 

any transaction over which the Secretary has jurisdiction. 

(e) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—Not later than 90 days after the 

enactment of this Act, the text of all policies (including any successor policies), including reference manuals, guidance documents, 

handbooks, standard operating procedures, and statements of policy 

specific to the scoping, contracting, and review of appraisals performed for the Department by Federal or non-Federal covered 

appraisers, shall be made publicly available online and provided 

upon request. 

(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

(1) COVERED APPRAISER.—The term ‘‘covered appraiser’’ 

means a State-licensed or -certified real property appraiser. 

(2) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ means the 

Department of the Interior. 
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(3) REPORTING PERIOD.—The term ‘‘reporting period’’ means 

the 1-year period before the date on which a report is submitted 

under subsection (c). 

(4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 

of the Interior. 

(5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of the several 

States, the District of Columbia, and each territory and possession of the United States. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.