H. R. 2389
One Hundred Sixth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the twenty-fourth day of January, two thousand
An Act
To restore stability and predictability to the annual payments made to States
and counties containing National Forest System lands and public domain lands
managed by the Bureau of Land Management for use by the counties for the
benefit of public schools, roads, and other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Secure Rural
Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000’’.
(b) Table of Contents.—The table of contents of this Act is
as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings and purposes.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Conforming amendment.
TITLE I—SECURE PAYMENTS FOR STATES AND COUNTIES CONTAINING
FEDERAL LANDS
Sec. 101. Determination of full payment amount for eligible States and counties.
Sec. 102. Payments to States from National Forest Service lands for use by coun-
ties to benefit public education and transportation.
Sec. 103. Payments to counties from Bureau of Land Management lands for use to
benefit public safety, law enforcement, education, and other public pur-
poses.
TITLE II—SPECIAL PROJECTS ON FEDERAL LANDS
Sec. 201. Definitions.
Sec. 202. General limitation on use of project funds.
Sec. 203. Submission of project proposals.
Sec. 204. Evaluation and approval of projects by Secretary concerned.
Sec. 205. Resource advisory committees.
Sec. 206. Use of project funds.
Sec. 207. Availability of project funds.
Sec. 208. Termination of authority.
TITLE III—COUNTY PROJECTS
Sec. 301. Definitions.
Sec. 302. Use of county funds.
Sec. 303. Termination of authority.
TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 401. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 402. Treatment of funds and revenues.
Sec. 403. Regulations.
Sec. 404. Conforming amendments.
TITLE V—MINERAL REVENUE PAYMENTS CLARIFICATION
Sec. 501. Short title.
Sec. 502. Findings.
H. R. 2389—2
Sec. 503. Amendment of the Mineral Leasing Act.
TITLE VI—COMMUNITY FOREST RESTORATION
Sec. 601. Short title.
Sec. 602. Findings.
Sec. 603. Purposes.
Sec. 604. Definitions.
Sec. 605. Establishment of program.
Sec. 606. Selection process.
Sec. 607. Monitoring and evaluation.
Sec. 608. Report.
Sec. 609. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) The National Forest System, which is managed by
the United States Forest Service, was established in 1907 and
has grown to include approximately 192,000,000 acres of Fed-
eral lands.
(2) The public domain lands known as revested Oregon
and California Railroad grant lands and the reconveyed Coos
Bay Wagon Road grant lands, which are managed predomi-
nantly by the Bureau of Land Management were returned
to Federal ownership in 1916 and 1919 and now comprise
approximately 2,600,000 acres of Federal lands.
(3) Congress recognized that, by its decision to secure these
lands in Federal ownership, the counties in which these lands
are situated would be deprived of revenues they would other-
wise receive if the lands were held in private ownership.
(4) These same counties have expended public funds year
after year to provide services, such as education, road construc-
tion and maintenance, search and rescue, law enforcement,
waste removal, and fire protection, that directly benefit these
Federal lands and people who use these lands.
(5) To accord a measure of compensation to the affected
counties for the critical services they provide to both county
residents and visitors to these Federal lands, Congress deter-
mined that the Federal Government should share with these
counties a portion of the revenues the United States receives
from these Federal lands.
(6) Congress enacted in 1908 and subsequently amended
a law that requires that 25 percent of the revenues derived
from National Forest System lands be paid to States for use
by the counties in which the lands are situated for the benefit
of public schools and roads.
(7) Congress enacted in 1937 and subsequently amended
a law that requires that 75 percent of the revenues derived
from the revested and reconveyed grant lands be paid to the
counties in which those lands are situated to be used as are
other county funds, of which 50 percent is to be used as other
county funds.
(8) For several decades primarily due to the growth of
the Federal timber sale program, counties dependent on and
supportive of these Federal lands received and relied on
increasing shares of these revenues to provide funding for
schools and road maintenance.
(9) In recent years, the principal source of these revenues,
Federal timber sales, has been sharply curtailed and, as the
volume of timber sold annually from most of the Federal lands