I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2852 

To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within their 

borders in lieu of receiving 5 percent of the proceeds of the sale of 

public land lying within said States as provided by their respective 

enabling Acts. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 

Mr. BISHOP of Utah (for himself, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Mr. CHAFFETZ, Mr. 

GOSAR, Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mr. GOHMERT) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To authorize Western States to make selections of public 

land within their borders in lieu of receiving 5 percent 

of the proceeds of the sale of public land lying within 

said States as provided by their respective enabling Acts. 

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 ‘‘Action Plan for Public 

5 Lands and Education Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 


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1 (1) The Acts enabling the people of territories 

2 of the American West to form their constitutions 

3 and State governments and providing for the admis4 sion of such States into the Union on equal footing 

5 with the original States included a common provision 

6 of which the following example is typical: That 5 

7 percent of the proceeds of the sales of public land 

8 lying within said State, which shall be sold by the 

9 United States subsequent to the admission of said 

10 State into the Union, after deducting all the ex11 penses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said 

12 State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest 

13 of which only shall be expended for the support of 

14 the common schools within said State. 

15 (2) Western States, as a group, are falling be16 hind in education funding as measured by growth of 

17 real per pupil expenditures from 1979 to 2007. 

18 (3) Nine of the 10 States with the lowest real 

19 growth in per pupil expenditures are Western States. 

20 (4) The growth rate of real per pupil expendi21 tures in the 13 Western States is substantially less 

22 than the rate in the 37 other States (56 percent 

23 versus 92 percent). 

24 (5) One effect of less funding for public edu25 cation in the West is higher pupil-per-teacher ratios. 


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1 (6) Nine of the 12 States with the largest 

2 pupil-per-teacher ratios are Western States. 

3 (7) On average, the 13 Western States have 3 

4 more students per classroom than the 37 other 

5 States. 

6 (8) Over the next 10 years, the rate of enroll7 ment growth is projected to be much higher in West8 ern States than in other States. 

9 (9) On average, the rate of enrollment growth 

10 in Western States is projected to increase dramati11 cally, while the rate of enrollment growth of most 

12 other States will see minimal growth or decrease. 

13 (10) The State and local taxes of Western 

14 States as a percentage of personal income are as 

15 high as or higher than other States. 

16 (11) Despite the fact that Western States tax 

17 at a comparable rate and allocate as much of their 

18 budgets to public education as other States, Western 

19 States have lower real growth in per pupil expendi20 tures and have higher pupil-per-teacher ratios. 

21 (12) The Federal Government is the source and 

22 potential solver of the problem because of the enor23 mous amount of untaxed land the Federal Govern24 ment owns in Western States. 


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1 (13) All States east of an imaginary vertical 

2 line from Montana to New Mexico have, on average, 

3 4.1 percent of their land federally owned, while the 

4 Western States on average have 51.9 percent of 

5 their land federally owned. 

6 (14) The plain language of these enabling Acts 

7 proclaims that the public land shall be sold by the 

8 United States subsequent to the admission of the 

9 States into the Union. 

10 (15) The United States honored those Acts by 

11 selling public land within the Western States until 

12 the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Manage13 ment Act of 1976, wherein Congress declared that 

14 the policy of the United States was to retain public 

15 land in Federal ownership and management. 

16 (16) The United States has broken its solemn 

17 compact with the Western States and breached its 

18 fiduciary duty to the school children who are des19 ignated beneficiaries of the sale of Federal land 

20 under the terms of the respective enabling Acts of 

21 the Western States. 

22 (17) The current shortfall in funding public 

23 education in the Western States requires immediate 

24 Congressional action to remedy the above-described 

25 discriminatory Federal land policy and prevent the 


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1 further disadvantaging of the school children of the 

2 Western States. 

3 (18) The most efficient and cost effective rem4 edy now available to the United States is to grant 

5 to the Western States 5 percent of the remaining 

6 Federal land located within each State, authorizing 

7 each State to select such land from the unappropri8 ated public land within the boundaries of the State 

9 to satisfy the grant. 

10 SEC. 3. QUANTITY GRANTS TO WESTERN STATES FOR EDU11 CATION IMPROVEMENT. 

12 (a) QUANTITY LAND GRANTS.—Instead of receiving, 

13 for the support of the common schools, 5 percent of the 

14 proceeds of the sales of federally owned land lying within 

15 the Western States which have not been sold by the United 

16 States as of January 1, 2011, grants of land are hereby 

17 made to the Western States. The amount of land granted 

18 to each State shall be equal to 5 percent of the number 

19 of acres of federally owned land within the State as of 

20 January 1, 2011. 

21 (b) SELECTION PROCESS.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each Western State shall 

23 select from the unappropriated public lands within 

24 the borders of the State in such manner as the legis25 lature of the State may provide, land equal in acreVerDate Mar 15 2010 05:11 Sep 08, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2852.IH H2852

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1 age to 5 percent of the federally owned land in the 

2 State as of January 1, 2011. 

3 (2) CALCULATION OF ACREAGE AND NOTIFICA4 TION OF STATE.—The Secretary shall calculate the 

5 exact acreage of federally owned land in each West6 ern State as of January 1, 2011, and designate the 

7 unappropriated public land, as defined herein, eligi8 ble for selection by the State. The Secretary shall 

9 communicate to each of the Western States the re10 spective acreage calculation and designation of land 

11 eligible for selection not later than 1 year after the 

12 date of the enactment of this Act. 

13 (c) APPLICATION OF CERTAIN LAW.—Selection and 

14 transfer of land under this Act shall not be considered a 

15 major Federal action for the purposes of section 

16 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 

17 1969. 

18 (d) MINERAL AND OIL AND GAS RIGHTS.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—All mineral, oil, and gas 

20 rights to the land selected by the Western States 

21 under this Act shall become the property of the rel22 evant Western State unless the Federal lessee of the 

23 selected land is making royalty payments to the 

24 United States from production of minerals, oil, or 

25 gas, whereupon the particular leasehold interest 


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1 shall remain in the ownership of the United States 

2 until the leasehold interest terminates. After that 

3 termination; the mineral, oil, and gas rights shall be4 come the property of the relevant Western State. 

5 (2) SELECTION OF SURFACE RIGHTS.—Western 

6 States may select only the surface of eligible land if 

7 the land is located on subsurface mineral, oil, or gas 

8 deposits that are generating royalty, rental or bonus 

9 payments to United States. The entire mineral, oil, 

10 and gas estate shall become the property of the 

11 Western State upon expiration or termination of 

12 production in paying quantities from the Federal 

13 lease. 

14 (e) PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND.—All land selected 

15 by each of the Western States shall be held in trust by 

16 the State agency empowered to sale or lease such lands, 

17 the proceeds of which shall be used as a permanent fund, 

18 the interest of which shall only be expended for the sup19 port of public education. 

20 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 

21 (1) The term ‘‘Western States’’ means Alaska, 

22 Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Mon23 tana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wash24 ington, and Wyoming. 


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1 (2) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 

2 of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as 

3 appropriate. 

4 (3) The term ‘‘State educational agency’’ means 

5 the agency of the State primarily responsible for the 

6 supervision of education. 

7 (4) The term ‘‘federally owned land’’ means all 

8 land held in the name of the United States or any 

9 agency thereof, including land held in trust, United 

10 States military reservations, Indian Reservations 

11 and any other land used for Federal purposes. 

12 (5) The term ‘‘unappropriated public lands’’ 

13 means any and all land under the management and 

14 control of the Bureau of Land Management or 

15 United States Forest Service, excluding land that 

16 is— 

17 (A) held in trust as the part of an Indian 

18 Reservation; 

19 (B) located within a United States military 

20 reservation; 

21 (C) a unit of the National Park System; 

22 (D) a Wildlife Refuge; 

23 (E) a Wilderness Area designated by Con24 gress; 

25 (F) a National Historic Site; 


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1 (G) a National Monument; 

2 (H) a National Natural Landmark; 

3 (I) an Area of Critical Environmental Con4 cern; or 

5 (J) a Wilderness Study Area. 

Æ 


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