I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5223
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a pilot program to
evaluate the feasibility and merits of State administration of units of
the National Forest System.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 20, 2000
Mr. SANFORD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a pilot
program to evaluate the feasibility and merits of State
administration of units of the National Forest System.
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 ‘‘National Forests Im-
provement Pilot Program Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DEFINITIONS.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) National forest management costs taxpayers
over $2,000,000,000 per year.
(2) The Forest Service has failed in four Gen-
eral Accounting Office audits to account for how it
spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the
1990’s, and the General Accounting Office has listed
the Forest Service as being at ‘‘high risk’’ of waste,
fraud, abuse, or mismanagement.
(3) Over 54,000,000 acres of Forest Service
land are currently at risk of catastrophic fire.
(4) In States where environmental audits are
performed, typically States are shown to have a bet-
ter performance record on the forest lands they
manage than the Forest Service has on the lands the
Forest Service manages.
(5) At the same time, most States are required
by law to show a return from State-owned forest
lands.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act:
(1) COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘Council’’ means the
Forest Stewardship Council.
(2) TEST
FOREST.—The term ‘‘test forest’’
means a unit of the National Forest System in-
cluded in the pilot program.
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Agriculture.
SEC. 3. PILOT PROGRAM OF STATE ADMINISTRATION OF
NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS.
(a) PROGRAM REQUIRED; PURPOSE.—The Secretary
shall carry out a pilot program in three Forest Service
regions to evaluate whether State governments can man-
age and improve National Forest System lands more effec-
tively and efficiently than the Forest Service and reduce
Federal expenditures for the National Forest System. The
Secretary shall ensure that the Forest Service regions se-
lected represent three different forest ecosystems.
(b) CONTRACTS WITH STATES.—The Secretary shall
enter into a contract with one State in each Forest Service
region selected for the pilot program under which the
State will assume management of one unit of the National
Forest System in that State on behalf of the Secretary.
(c) APPLICABLE LAWS.—The Federal and State laws
applicable to a test forest as a unit of the National Forest
System shall continue to apply to the test forest notwith-
standing State administration of the test forest under the
pilot program, except that the State is not required to fol-
low the standard operating procedures and guidelines con-
tained in the Forest Service handbook.
(d) TREATMENT
OF FOREST SERVICE EMPLOY-
EES.—Subchapter VI of chapter 33 of title 5, United
States Code, shall apply with respect to any employee of
the Forest Service who is assigned to duty in a test forest