I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3463
To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within their 
borders in lieu of receiving five per centum 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 
JULY 27, 2005
Mr. BISHOP of Utah (for himself, Mr. CANNON, Mr. CULBERSON, Mr. OTTER, 
Mr. HERGER, Mr. GIBBONS, and Mr. WALDEN of Oregon) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources 
A BILL 
To authorize Western States to make selections of public 
land within their borders in lieu of receiving five per 
centum of the proceeds of the sale of public land lying 
within said States as provided by their respective Ena-
bling Acts.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Action Plan for Public 
Lands and Education Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Western States, as a group, are falling be-
hind in education funding as measured by growth of 
real per pupil expenditures from 1979 to 1998. 
(2) Eleven of the 12 States with the lowest real 
growth in per pupil expenditures are Western States. 
(3) The growth rate of real per pupil expendi-
tures in the 13 Western States is less than half such 
rate in the 37 other States (28 percent versus 57 
percent). 
(4) One effect of less funding for public edu-
cation in the West is higher pupil-per-teacher ratios. 
(5) Ten of the twelve States with the largest 
pupil-per-teacher ratios are Western States. 
(6) On average, the 13 Western States have 3 
more students per classroom than the 37 other 
States. 
(7) Over the next 10 years, the rate of enroll-
ment growth is projected to be much higher in West-
ern States than in other States. 
(8) On average, the rate of enrollment growth 
of Western States is projected to increase dramati-
cally, while the rate of enrollment growth other 
States is projected to actually decrease.
(9) The State and local taxes of Western States 
as a percentage of personal income are as high as 
or higher than other States. 
(10) Despite the fact that Western States tax 
at a comparable rate and allocate as much of their 
budgets to public education as other States, Western 
States have lower real growth in per pupil expendi-
tures and have higher pupil per teacher ratios. 
(11) The Federal Government is the source and 
potential solver of the problem because of the enor-
mous amount of land the Federal Government owns 
in Western States. 
(12) All States east of an imaginary vertical 
line from Montana to New Mexico have, on average, 
4.1 percent of their land federally owned, while the 
Western States on average have 51.9 percent of 
their land federally owned. 
(13) The Acts enabling the people of territories 
of the American West to form their constitutions 
and State governments and providing for the admis-
sion of such States into the Union on equal footing 
with the original States, included a common provi-
sion of which the following example is typical: ‘‘That 
five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public 
land lying within said State, which shall be sold by
the United States subsequent to the admission of 
said State into the Union, after deducting all the ex-
penses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said 
State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest 
of which only shall be expended for the support of 
the common schools within said State.’’. 
(14) The plain language of these enabling acts 
proclaims that the public land ‘‘shall be sold by the 
United States’’ subsequent to the admission of the 
States into the Union. 
(15) The United States honored the foregoing 
language by selling public land within the Western 
States until the passage of the Federal Land Policy 
and Management Act of 1976, wherein Congress de-
clared that the policy of the United States was to re-
tain public land in Federal ownership and manage-
ment. 
(16) The United States has broken its solemn 
compact with the Western States and breached its 
fiduciary duty to the school children who are des-
ignated beneficiaries of the sale of pubic land under 
the terms of the respective enabling Acts of the 
Western States. 
(17) The current shortfall in funding public 
education in the Western States requires immediate
Congressional action to remedy the above-described 
discriminatory Federal land policy and prevent the 
further disadvantaging of the school children of the 
Western States. 
(18) The most efficient and cost effective rem-
edy now available to the United States is to grant 
to the Western States 5 percent of the remaining 
federal land located within each State, authorizing 
each State to select such land from the unappropri-
ated public land of the United States within the 
boundaries of said State as will satisfy the grant. 
SEC. 3. QUANTITY GRANTS TO WESTERN STATES FOR EDU-
CATION IMPROVEMENT. 
(a) QUANTITY LAND GRANTS.—Instead of receiving, 
for the support of the common schools, 5 percent of the 
proceeds of the sales of federally owned land lying within 
the Western States which have not been sold by the United 
States as of July 1, 2005, grants of land are hereby made 
to the Western States. The amount of land granted to 
each State shall be equal to 5 percent of the number of 
acres of federally owned land within the State as of July 
1, 2005. 
(b) SELECTION PROCESS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Each Western State shall 
select from the unappropriated public lands within
the borders of the State in such manner as the legis-
lature of the State may provide, land equal in acre-
age to five percent of the federally own land in the 
State as of July 1, 2005. 
(2) CALCULATION OF ACREAGE AND NOTIFICA-
TION OF STATE.—The Secretary shall calculate the 
exact acreage of federally owned land in each West-
ern State as of July 1, 2005, and designate the un-
appropriated public land, as defined herein, eligible 
for selection by the State. The Secretary shall com-
municate to each of the Western States the respec-
tive acreage calculation and designation of land eligi-
ble for selection not later than 1 year after the date 
of the enactment of this Act. 
(c) APPLICATION OF CERTAIN LAW.—Selection and 
transfer of land under this Act shall not be considered a 
major Federal action for the purposes of section 
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969. 
(d) MINERAL AND OIL AND GAS RIGHTS.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—All mineral, oil, and gas 
rights to the land selected by the Western States 
under this Act shall become the property of the rel-
evant Western State unless the Federal lessee of the 
selected land is making royalty payments to the
United States from production of minerals, oil, or 
gas, whereupon the particular leasehold interest 
shall remain in the ownership of the United States 
until the leasehold interest terminates. After that 
termination; the mineral, oil, and gas rights shall be-
come the property of the relevant Western State. 
(2) SELECTION OF SURFACE RIGHTS.—Western 
States may select only the surface of eligible land if 
the land is located on subsurface mineral, oil, or gas 
deposits that are generating royalty payments to 
United States. The entire mineral, oil, and gas es-
tate shall become the property of the Western State 
upon termination of the Federal lease. 
(e) PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND.—All land selected 
by each of the Western States shall be held in trust by 
a State educational agency empowered to sell or lease such 
land, the proceeds of which shall be used as a permanent 
fund, the interest of which shall be expended only for the 
support of public education. 
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘Western States’’ means Alaska, 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Mon-
tana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wash-
ington, and Wyoming.
(2) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as 
appropriate. 
(3) The term ‘‘State educational agency’’ means 
the agency of the State primarily responsible for the 
supervision of education. 
(4) The term ‘‘federally owned land’’ means all 
land held in the name of the United States or any 
agency thereof, including land held in trust, United 
States military reservations, Indian reservations, and 
any other land used for Federal purposes. 
(5) The term ‘‘unappropriated public lands’’ 
means any and all land under the management and 
control of the Bureau of Land Management or 
United States Forest Service, excluding land that 
is—
(A) held in trust; 
(B) located within a United States military 
reservation; 
(C) a unit of the National Park System; 
(D) a Wildlife Refuge; 
(E) a Wilderness Area designated by Con-
gress; or 
(F) a National Historic Site.
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