H. R. 2466—61
machines include an option that enables callers to reach promptly
an individual on-duty with the agency being contacted.
SEC. 331. ENHANCING FOREST SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
OF
RIGHTS-OF-WAY AND LAND USES. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture
shall develop and implement a pilot program for the purpose of
enhancing forest service administration of rights-of-way and other
land uses. The authority for this program shall be for fiscal years
2000 through 2004. Prior to the expiration of the authority for
this pilot program, the Secretary shall submit a report to the
House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, and the Com-
mittee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the
Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives that evalu-
ates whether the use of funds under this section resulted in more
expeditious approval of rights-of-way and special use authorizations.
This report shall include the Secretary’s recommendation for statu-
tory or regulatory changes to reduce the average processing time
for rights-of-way and special use permit applications.
(b) DEPOSIT OF FEES.—Subject to subsections (a) and (f ), during
fiscal years 2000 through 2004, the Secretary of Agriculture shall
deposit into a special account established in the Treasury all fees
collected by the Secretary to recover the costs of processing applica-
tions for, and monitoring compliance with, authorizations to use
and occupy National Forest System lands pursuant to section 28(l)
of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 185(l)), section 504(g) of
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C.
1764(g)), section 9701 of title 31, United States Code, and section
110(g) of the National Historic Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470h–
2(g)).
(c) USE OF RETAINED AMOUNTS.—Amounts deposited pursuant
to subsection (b) shall be available, without further appropriation,
for expenditure by the Secretary of Agriculture to cover costs
incurred by the Forest Service for the processing of applications
for special use authorizations and for monitoring activities under-
taken in connection with such authorizations. Amounts in the spe-
cial account shall remain available for such purposes until
expended.
(d) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—In the budget justification docu-
ments submitted by the Secretary of Agriculture in support of
the President’s budget for a fiscal year under section 1105 of title
31, United States Code, the Secretary shall include a description
of the purposes for which amounts were expended from the special
account during the preceding fiscal year, including the amounts
expended for each purpose, and a description of the purposes for
which amounts are proposed to be expended from the special
account during the next fiscal year, including the amounts proposed
to be expended for each purpose.
(e) DEFINITION OF AUTHORIZATION.—For purposes of this sec-
tion, the term ‘‘authorizations’’ means special use authorizations
issued under subpart B of part 251 of title 36, Code of Federal
Regulations.
(f ) IMPLEMENTATION.—This section shall take effect upon
promulgation of Forest Service regulations for the collection of
fees for processing of special use authorizations and for related
monitoring activities.
SEC. 332. HARDWOOD TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
AND APPLIED
RESEARCH. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter the ‘‘Sec-
retary’’) is hereby and hereafter authorized to conduct technology
H. R. 2466—62
transfer and development, training, dissemination of information
and applied research in the management, processing and utilization
of the hardwood forest resource. This authority is in addition to
any other authorities which may be available to the Secretary
including, but not limited to, the Cooperative Forestry Assistance
Act of 1978, as amended (16 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.), and the Forest
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Act of 1978, as amended (16
U.S.C. 1600–1614).
(b) In carrying out this authority, the Secretary may enter
into grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements with public and
private agencies, organizations, corporations, institutions and
individuals. The Secretary may accept gifts and donations pursuant
to the Act of October 10, 1978 (7 U.S.C. 2269) including gifts
and donations from a donor that conducts business with any agency
of the Department of Agriculture or is regulated by the Secretary
of Agriculture.
(c) The Secretary is hereby and hereafter authorized to operate
and utilize the assets of the Wood Education and Resource Center
(previously named the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technology Center
in West Virginia) as part of a newly formed ‘‘Institute of Hardwood
Technology Transfer and Applied Research’’ (hereinafter the
‘‘Institute’’). The Institute, in addition to the Wood Education and
Resource Center, will consist of a Director, technology transfer
specialists from State and Private Forestry, the Forestry Sciences
Laboratory in Princeton, West Virginia, and any other organiza-
tional unit of the Department of Agriculture as the Secretary deems
appropriate. The overall management of the Institute will be the
responsibility of the Forest Service, State and Private Forestry.
(d) The Secretary is hereby and hereafter authorized to generate
revenue using the authorities provided herein. Any revenue received
as part of the operation of the Institute shall be deposited into
a special fund in the Treasury of the United States, known as
the ‘‘Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research Fund’’,
which shall be available to the Secretary until expended, without
further appropriation, in furtherance of the purposes of this section,
including upkeep, management, and operation of the Institute and
the payment of salaries and expenses.
(e) There are hereby and hereafter authorized to be appro-
priated such sums as necessary to carry out the provisions of
this section.
SEC. 333. No timber in Region 10 of the Forest Service shall
be advertised for sale which, when using domestic Alaska western
red cedar selling values and manufacturing costs, fails to provide
at least 60 percent of normal profit and risk of the appraised
timber, except at the written request by a prospective bidder. Pro-
gram accomplishments shall be based on volume sold. Should
Region 10 sell, in fiscal year 2000, the annual average portion
of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current
Tongass Land Management Plan which provides greater than 60
percent of normal profit and risk at the time of the sale advertise-
ment, all of the western red cedar timber from those sales which
is surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska, shall
be made available to domestic processors in the contiguous 48
United States based on values in the Pacific Northwest as deter-
mined by the Forest Service and stated in the timber sale contract.
Should Region 10 sell, in fiscal year 2000, less than the annual
average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for
H. R. 2466—63
in the current Tongass Land Management Plan meeting the 60
percent of normal profit and risk standard at the time of sale
advertisement, the volume of western red cedar timber available
to domestic processors at rates specified in the timber sale contract
in the contiguous 48 United States shall be that volume: (1) which
is surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska; and (2)
is that percent of the surplus western red cedar volume determined
by calculating the ratio of the total timber volume which has
been sold on the Tongass to the annual average portion of the
decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass
Land Management Plan. The percentage shall be calculated by
Region 10 on a rolling basis as each sale is sold (for purposes
of this amendment, a ‘‘rolling basis’’ shall mean that the determina-
tion of how much western red cedar is eligible for sale to various
markets shall be made at the time each sale is awarded). Western
red cedar shall be deemed ‘‘surplus to the needs of domestic proc-
essors in Alaska’’ when the timber sale holder has presented to
the Forest Service documentation of the inability to sell western
red cedar logs from a given sale to domestic Alaska processors
at a price equal to or greater than the log selling value stated
in the contract. All additional western red cedar volume not sold
to Alaska or contiguous 48 United States domestic processors may
be exported to foreign markets at the election of the timber sale
holder. All Alaska yellow cedar may be sold at prevailing export
prices at the election of the timber sale holder.
SEC. 334. For fiscal year 2000, with respect to inventorying,
monitoring, or surveying requirements for planning or management
activities on Federal land, the Secretary of Agriculture may comply
with part 219 of volume 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations
and a land and resource management plan, and the Secretary
of the Interior may comply with a resource management plan by
using currently available scientific data concerning any fish, wild-
life, or plants not subject to the Endangered Species Act, and
by considering the availability of habitat suitable for the particular
species: Provided, That the Secretaries may at their discretion
determine whether additional species population surveys should
also be collected: Provided further, That a project subject to the
Northwest Forest Plan for which the record of decision was signed
by an agency official prior to the date of the enactment of this
Act may, at the discretion of the Secretaries, be deemed to be
implemented on the date the decision was signed.
SEC. 335. The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of
the Interior shall:
(1) prepare the report required of them by section 323(a)
of the Fiscal Year 1998 Interior and Related Agencies Appro-
priations Act (Public Law 105–83; 111 Stat. 1543, 1596–7);
(2) distribute the report and make such report available
for public comment for a minimum of 120 days; and
(3) include detailed responses to the public comment in
any final environmental impact statement associated with the
Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.
SEC. 336. None of the funds appropriated by this Act shall
be used to propose or issue rules, regulations, decrees, or orders
for the purpose of implementation, or in preparation for
implementation, of the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted on
December 11, 1997, in Kyoto, Japan at the Third Conference of
H. R. 2466—64
the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Cli-
mate Change, which has not been submitted to the Senate for
advice and consent to ratification pursuant to article II, section
2, clause 2, of the United States Constitution, and which has
not entered into force pursuant to article 25 of the Protocol.
SEC. 337. (a) MILLSITES OPINION.—No funds shall be expended
by the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture,
for fiscal years 2000 and 2001, to limit the number or acreage
of millsites based on the ratio between the number or acreage
of millsites and the number or acreage of associated lode or placer
claims with respect to any patent application grandfathered pursu-
ant to section 113 of the Department of the Interior and Related
Agencies, Appropriations Act, 1995; any operation or property for
which a plan of operations has been previously approved; or any
operation or property for which a plan of operations has been
submitted to the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service
prior to May 21, 1999.
(b) NO RATIFICATION.—Nothing in this Act or the Emergency
Supplemental Act of 1999 shall be construed as an explicit or
tacit adoption, ratification, endorsement or approval of the opinion
dated November 7, 1997, by the solicitor of the Department of
the Interior concerning millsites.
SEC. 338. The Forest Service, in consultation with the Depart-
ment of Labor, shall review Forest Service campground concessions
policy to determine if modifications can be made to Forest Service
contracts for campgrounds so that such concessions fall within
the regulatory exemption of 29 CFR 4.122(b). The Forest Service
shall offer in fiscal year 2000 such concession prospectuses under
the regulatory exemption, except that, any prospectus that does
not meet the requirements of the regulatory exemption shall be
offered as a service contract in accordance with the requirements
of 41 U.S.C. 351–358.
SEC. 339. PILOT PROGRAM OF CHARGES AND FEES FOR HARVEST
OF FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCTS. (a) DEFINITION OF FOREST BOTAN-
ICAL PRODUCT.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘‘forest botan-
ical product’’ means any naturally occurring mushrooms, fungi,
flowers, seeds, roots, bark, leaves, and other vegetation (or portion
thereof ) that grow on National Forest System lands. The term
does not include trees, except as provided in regulations issued
under this section by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(b) RECOVERY OF FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR PRODUCTS.—The
Secretary of Agriculture shall develop and implement a pilot pro-
gram to charge and collect not less than the fair market value
for forest botanical products harvested on National Forest System
lands. The Secretary shall establish appraisal methods and bidding
procedures to ensure that the amounts collected for forest botanical
products are not less than fair market value.
(c) FEES.—
(1) IMPOSITION AND COLLECTION.—Under the pilot program,
the Secretary of Agriculture shall also charge and collect fees
from persons who harvest forest botanical products on National
Forest System lands to recover all costs to the Department
of Agriculture associated with the granting, modifying, or moni-
toring the authorization for harvest of the forest botanical
products, including the costs of any environmental or other
analysis.