II 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2253

To permit young adults to perform projects to prevent fire and suppress 

fires, and provide disaster relief, on public land through a Healthy 

Forest Youth Conservation Corps. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 29, 2004

Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. DOMENICI, Mrs. BOXER, and Mr. DAYTON) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL

To permit young adults to perform projects to prevent fire 

and suppress fires, and provide disaster relief, on public 

land through a Healthy Forest Youth Conservation 

Corps.

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 ‘‘Healthy Forest Youth 

5 Conservation Corps Act of 2004’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 
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•S 2253 IS 

1 (1) the natural fire regimes of forested public 

2 land have been altered by intensive fire suppression; 

3 (2) fire suppression has led to increased risk of 

4 unnaturally severe wildfires that in recent years have 

5 destroyed thousands of homes, devastated agricul6 tural crops and livestock, reduced biodiversity, and 

7 scorched thousands of areas of soil and natural re8 sources; 

9 (3) catastrophic wildfires pose a particular 

10 threat to communities and wildlife living close to for11 ested wildland, known as the ‘‘wildland-urban inter12 face’’; 

13 (4) each year millions of public dollars are 

14 spent to fight severe wildfires and protect commu15 nities where municipal water supplies, human lives, 

16 and property are threatened; 

17 (5) cooperative agreements between public 

18 agencies empower communities and are cost-effective 

19 tools that provide positive social and environmental 

20 benefits; 

21 (6) cooperative agreements should be encour22 aged to prevent unnaturally severe fires, rehabilitate 

23 public land affected or altered by fires, and enhance 

24 and maintain environmentally important land and 

25 water; and 
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1 (7) joint collaborations between the public agen2 cies and service and conservation corps are particu3 larly beneficial, as the collaborations provide— 

4 (A) young adults the opportunity to pre5 pare for productive lives while engaged in 

6 meaningful and educational public service op7 portunities; and 

8 (B) the public with cost-saving human re9 sources to assist in conserving, maintaining, 

10 and protecting public land. 

11 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 

12 The purposes of this Act are— 

13 (1) to allow service and conservation corps to 

14 contract directly with public land management agen15 cies to perform rehabilitation and enhancement 

16 projects to prevent fire, rehabilitate public land af17 fected or altered by fires, and suppress fires, and 

18 provide disaster relief; 

19 (2) to offer young adults, ages 16 through 25, 

20 particularly those who are at-risk or economically 

21 disadvantaged, the opportunity to gain productive 

22 employment; 

23 (3) to provide those young adults the oppor24 tunity to serve their communities and their country; 

25 and 
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1 (4) to expand educational opportunities by re2 warding individuals who participate in the Healthy 

3 Forest Youth Conservation Corps with an increased 

4 ability to pursue higher education or employment. 

5 SEC. 4. HEALTHY FOREST YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS. 

6 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a 

7 Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps. 

8 (b) PARTICIPANTS.—The Corps shall consist of low9 income young adults who are enrolled as members of a 

10 service and conservation corps. 

11 (c) CONTRACTS OR AGREEMENTS.—The Secretary 

12 may enter into contracts or cooperative agreements di13 rectly with— 

14 (1) any service and conservation corps to carry 

15 out rehabilitation and enhancement projects to pre16 vent fire and suppress fires, rehabilitate public land 

17 affected or altered by fires, and provide disaster re18 lief; or 

19 (2) a department of natural resources, agri20 culture, or forestry (or an equivalent department) of 

21 any State that has entered into a contract or cooper22 ative agreement with a service and conservation 

23 corps to carry out a project described in paragraph 

24 (1). 

25 (d) PROJECTS.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may enter 

2 into contracts or cooperative agreements with service 

3 and conservation corps to carry out rehabilitation 

4 and enhancement projects to prevent fire and sup5 press fires, rehabilitate public land affected or al6 tered by fires, and provide disaster relief, includ7 ing— 

8 (A) a project relating to the National Fire 

9 Plan; 

10 (B) a project relating to the Healthy For11 ests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6501 

12 et seq.); and 

13 (C) other activities allowed under— 

14 (i) a national forest and grassland 

15 land management plan; or 

16 (ii) a Bureau of Land Management 

17 land use plan. 

18 (2) PRIORITY.—In entering into contractual or 

19 cooperative agreements with service and conservation 

20 corps under paragraph (1), each Secretary shall give 

21 priority to projects that will— 

22 (A) reduce hazardous fuels on public land; 

23 (B) restore public land affected or immi24 nently threatened by disease or insect infesta25 tion; 
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1 (C) rehabilitate public land affected or al2 tered by fires; 

3 (D) assess windthrown public land or pub4 lic land at high risk of reburn; 

5 (E) work to address public land located 

6 within relative proximity to a municipal water7 shed and municipal water supply; 

8 (F) provide related emergency assistance, 

9 such as natural disaster relief and the rescue of 

10 lost or injured persons; 

11 (G) instill in members of the service and 

12 conservation corps a work ethic, and a sense of 

13 personal responsibility; 

14 (H) be labor-intensive; and 

15 (I) be planned and initiated promptly. 

16 (e) SUPPORTIVE SERVICES.—Each Secretary may 

17 provide such services as the Secretary considers to be nec18 essary to carry out this Act. 

19 (f) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—To carry out this Act, 

20 the Secretaries shall provide technical assistance, over21 sight, monitoring, and evaluation to or for— 

22 (1) State departments of natural resources and 

23 agriculture (or equivalent agencies); 

24 (2) service and conservation corps; 
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1 (3) in the case of Indian lands, the applicable 

2 Indian tribe; 

3 (4) in the case of Hawaiian home lands, the ap4 plicable State agency in the State of Hawaii; and 

5 (5) in the case of land under the jurisdiction of 

6 an Alaska Native Corporation, the applicable Alaska 

7 Native Corporation. 

8 SEC. 5. USE OF FUNDS. 

9 Funds made available under this Act may be used 

10 to support implementation, monitoring, training, technical 

11 assistance, and administrative work of local and State con12 servation corps that have entered into cooperative agree13 ments with public land management agencies. 

14 SEC. 6. NONCOMPETITIVE HIRING STATUS. 

15 Each Secretary may grant credit for time served to16 ward future Federal hiring, and provide noncompetitive 

17 hiring status, for former members of the Corps for not 

18 more than 120 days after service is complete. 

19 SEC. 7. NONDISPLACEMENT. 

20 The nondisplacement requirements of section 177(b) 

21 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 

22 U.S.C. 12637(b)) shall apply to activities carried out by 

23 the Corps under this Act. 

24 SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 

25 In this Act:
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1 (1) ALASKA NATIVE CORPORATION.—The term 

2 ‘‘Alaska Native Corporation’’ means a Regional Cor3 poration or Village Corporation, as those terms are 

4 defined in section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims 

5 Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1602). 

6 (2) CORPS.—The term ‘‘Corps’’ means the 

7 Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps estab8 lished under section 4. 

9 (3) HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS.—The term ‘‘Ha10 waiian home lands’’ has the meaning given the term 

11 in section 203 of Public Law 91–378 (commonly 

12 known as the ‘‘Youth Conservation Corps Act of 

13 1970’’) (16 U.S.C. 1722). 

14 (4) INDIAN LANDS.—The term ‘‘Indian lands’’ 

15 has the meaning given the term in section 203 of 

16 Public Law 91–378 (commonly known as the 

17 ‘‘Youth Conservation Corps Act of 1970’’) (16 

18 U.S.C. 1722). 

19 (5) PUBLIC LAND.—The term ‘‘public land’’ 

20 means— 

21 (A) land of the National Forest System (as 

22 defined in section 11(a) of the Forest and 

23 Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 

24 of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a))) administered by 
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1 the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 

2 Chief of the Forest Service; 

3 (B) public lands (as defined in section 103 

4 of the Federal Land Policy and Management 

5 Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)), the surfaces of 

6 which are administered by the Secretary of the 

7 Interior, acting through the Director of the Bu8 reau of Land Management; 

9 (C) public lands, the surfaces of which are 

10 administered by the Secretary of the Interior, 

11 acting through the Director of the United 

12 States Fish and Wildlife Service; 

13 (D) land owned by a State or local agency; 

14 (E) Indian lands, with the approval of the 

15 applicable Indian tribe; 

16 (F) Hawaiian home lands, with the ap17 proval of the applicable State agency in the 

18 State of Hawaii; and 

19 (G) land under the jurisdiction of an Alas20 ka Native Corporation, with the approval of the 

21 applicable Alaska Native Corporation. 

22 (6) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 

23 means— 
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1 (A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re2 spect to land of the National Forest System de3 scribed in paragraph (5)(A); 

4 (B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re5 spect to public lands described in paragraph 

6 (5)(B); and 

7 (C) the Secretary of Agriculture and the 

8 Secretary of the Interior jointly, with respect to 

9 land owned by a State or local agency described 

10 in paragraph (5)(C). 

11 (7) SERVICE AND CONSERVATION CORPS.—The 

12 term ‘‘service and conservation corps’’ means any or13 ganization established by a State or local govern14 ment, nonprofit organization, or Indian tribe that— 

15 (A) has a research-validated demonstrable 

16 capability to provide productive work to individ17 uals; 

18 (B) gives participants a combination of 

19 work experience, basic and life skills, education, 

20 training, and support services; and 

21 (C) provides participants with the oppor22 tunity to develop citizenship values through 

23 service to their communities and the United 

24 States. 

25 (8) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 
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1 (A) a State; 

2 (B) the District of Columbia; 

3 (C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 

4 (D) Guam; 

5 (E) American Samoa; 

6 (F) the Commonwealth of the Northern 

7 Mariana Islands; 

8 (G) the Federated States of Micronesia; 

9 (H) the Republic of the Marshall Islands; 

10 (I) the Republic of Palau; and 

11 (J) the United States Virgin Islands. 

12 (9) YOUNG ADULTS.—The term ‘‘young adults’’ 

13 means individuals between 16 and 25 years of age. 

14 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

15 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

16 this Act $25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2005 through 

17 2009.

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