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. 
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 2011’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
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(1) 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 provision 
of which the following example is typical: That 5 
percent 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. 
(2) Western States, as a group, are falling be-
hind in education funding as measured by growth of 
real per pupil expenditures from 1979 to 2007. 
(3) Nine of the 10 States with the lowest real 
growth in per pupil expenditures are Western States. 
(4) The growth rate of real per pupil expendi-
tures in the 13 Western States is substantially less 
than the rate in the 37 other States (56 percent 
versus 92 percent). 
(5) One effect of less funding for public edu-
cation in the West is higher pupil-per-teacher ratios. 
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(6) Nine of the 12 States with the largest 
pupil-per-teacher ratios are Western States. 
(7) On average, the 13 Western States have 3 
more students per classroom than the 37 other 
States. 
(8) 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. 
(9) On average, the rate of enrollment growth 
in Western States is projected to increase dramati-
cally, while the rate of enrollment growth of most 
other States will see minimal growth or decrease. 
(10) The State and local taxes of Western 
States as a percentage of personal income are as 
high as or higher than other States. 
(11) 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. 
(12) The Federal Government is the source and 
potential solver of the problem because of the enor-
mous amount of untaxed land the Federal Govern-
ment owns in Western States. 
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(13) 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. 
(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 those Acts by 
selling public land within the Western States until 
the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-
ment Act of 1976, wherein Congress declared that 
the policy of the United States was to retain public 
land in Federal ownership and management. 
(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 Federal 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 
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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 within the boundaries of the State 
to 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 January 1, 2011, 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 
January 1, 2011. 
(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-
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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, rental or bonus 
payments to United States. The entire mineral, oil, 
and gas estate shall become the property of the 
Western State upon expiration or termination of 
production in paying quantities from the Federal 
lease. 
(e) PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND.—All land selected 
by each of the Western States shall be held in trust by 
the State agency empowered to sale or lease such lands, 
the proceeds of which shall be used as a permanent fund, 
the interest of which shall only be expended for the sup-
port 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. 
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(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 as the part of an Indian 
Reservation; 
(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; 
(F) a National Historic Site; 
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(G) a National Monument; 
(H) a National Natural Landmark; 
(I) an Area of Critical Environmental Con-
cern; or 
(J) a Wilderness Study Area. 
Æ 
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