jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-15 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on April 25, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Eastern Nevada Land Implementation Improvement Act

 (Sec. 2) This bill amends the Lincoln County Land Act of 2000 (LCLA) to require implementation of a multispecies habitat conservation plan in Lincoln County, Nevada.

Both the LCLA and the Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation, and Development Act of 2004 (LCCRDA) are amended to make certain amounts available for comprehensive, cost-effective, and multijurisdictional hazardous fuels reduction projects and wildfire prevention planning activities (particularly for pinyon-juniper dominated landscapes) and other rangeland and woodland restoration projects within the county, consistent with the Ely Resource Management Plan or a subsequent amendment to it.

 The bill requires cooperative agreements between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Lincoln County for certain county-provided law enforcement and planning related activities approved by the Department of the Interior.

 Certain portions of land sale proceeds returned to the County under the LCLA and the LCCRDA shall be used in part for the Lincoln County Regional Development Authority.

Under the LCCRDA Interior shall realign a specified portion of a 2,640-foot wide utility corridor.

The bill:

 affirms and validates patent number 27-2005-0081 issued by the BLM on February 18, 2005, as having been issued pursuant to and in compliance with specified law for the benefit of the desert tortoise, other species, and their habitat to increase the likelihood of their recovery; and ratifies the processes used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the BLM in reconfiguring the land covered by the patent. Interior may issue a corrective patent for 7,548 specified acres of land in Lincoln County.

(Sec. 3) The bill amends the Pam White Wilderness Act to adjust the boundary of the Mt. Moriah Wilderness to include specified lands, and the boundary of the High Schells Wilderness to include and exclude specified lands.

The bill amends the Nevada Wilderness Protection Act of 1989 to adjust the boundary of the Arc Dome Wilderness to exclude specified land.

(Sec. 4) The bill amends the Mesquite Lands Act of 1988 to require the proceeds of the sales of certain parcels of land by Interior to the city of Mesquite, Nevada, to be made available for use for the development and implementation of a conservation plan to benefit fish and wildlife species of the Virgin River in Clark County (rather than, as currently, for development of a multispecies habitat conservation plan).
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Central Coast Heritage Protection Act

 This bill designates specified Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Forest System lands in California as wilderness areas and as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

It also designates certain land in Los Padres National Forest in California, comprising approximately 2,174 acres, as the Machesna Mountain Potential Wilderness Area, which shall be incorporated into the Machesna Mountain Wilderness Area.

Specified segments of the Indian, Mono, Matilija, Sespe, and Piru Creeks and Sisquoc River in California are designated as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Certain land in the Los Padres National Forest in California, comprising approximately 41,617 acres, is designated as the Fox Mountain Potential Wilderness Area, which shall be incorporated into the San Rafael Wilderness.

This bill designates specified land: (1) in Los Padres National Forest, comprising approximately 18,666 acres, as the Condor Ridge Scenic Area; and (2) in Los Padres National Forest and in the BLM Bakersfield Field Office, comprising approximately 15,846 acres, as the Black Mountain Scenic Area.

The Condor Trail in Monterey County, California, is designated as the Condor National Recreation Trail.

The Department of Agriculture shall study: (1) connecting the northern and southern parts of the Los Padres National Forest using a trail corridor across parts of the Northern and Southern Santa Lucia Mountains of the Southern California Coastal Range; and (2) nonmotorized recreation trail opportunities (including mountain bicycling) on land not designated as wilderness by this Act within the Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Mt. Pinos ranger districts.

The Forest Service shall study the feasibility of opening a new trail, for vehicles measuring 50 inches or less, connecting Forest Service Highway 95 to the existing off-highway vehicle trail system in the Ballinger Canyon off-highway vehicle area.

Indian tribes shall be assured access to the wilderness areas, scenic areas, and potential wilderness areas designated by this Act for traditional cultural and religious purposes.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-21 00:00:00

Amends the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to apply certain requirements for permits and leases for domestic livestock grazing on National Forest System lands issued by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) regardless of where located.

Requires the terms and conditions in a grazing permit or lease that has been waived to be continued under a new permit or lease until the Department of the Interior (respecting public lands) or USDA completes any environmental analysis and documentation for an allotment management plan required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and other applicable laws.

Allows the categorical exclusion of an allotment management plan by Interior or USDA from the requirement to prepare an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement under NEPA if: (1) the issued allotment management plan continues the current grazing management of the allotment, and (2) the Department concerned has assessed and evaluated the grazing allotment associated with such management plan.

(A "categorical exclusion" under NEPA is a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a federal agency in implementing environmental regulations and for which, therefore, neither an Environmental Assessment nor an Environmental Impact Statement is required.)
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-22 00:00:00

American Land Act

 Authorizes the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, for each of FY2016-FY2021, to offer for competitive sale by auction to eligible entities 8% of the federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and 8% of the National Forest System land. Includes as an "eligible entity": (1) a U.S. citizen, or (2) a corporation or partnership created or organized in or under the laws of the United States.

Requires the land to be sold to: (1) be configured to maximize marketability or achieve management objectives, and (2) include the mineral rights for not more than 50% of the total acreage if such inclusion is likely to maximize marketability.

Requires proceeds to be deposited into the Highway Trust Fund.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-23 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act Extension Act of 2015 

(Sec. 2) This bill extends the authority of the Department of the Interior, with respect to federal land management agencies, and the Department of Agriculture, with respect to the Forest Service, to carry out the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act through September 30, 2017.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-23 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

American Soda Ash Competitiveness Act

 (Sec. 2) Sets at 2%, for a five-year period, the royalty rate on the quantity or gross value of the output of sodium compounds and related products at the point of shipment to market from federal land.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-28 00:00:00

National Park and Wilderness Waters Protection Forever Act

Withdraws federal lands within the Rainy River Drainage Basin in Minnesota from all forms of: (1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws; (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and (3) operation under the mineral leasing and mineral material laws.

Deems the approval of any lease or permit for activities relating to mining on federal lands in the Basin to be a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. Requires an environmental impact statement conducted for such an action to include consideration of any potential impacts to units of the National Park System (NPS) or land in the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) located in the Basin. Conditions the issuance or renewal of any such lease or permit on a requirement that the permittee or lessee seasonally monitor water quality on such lands throughout the Basin. Requires all mining activities to be suspended if any mining related contamination is detected in any NPS unit or NWPS land in the Basin until all contamination has been remediated.

Bars a federal agency from approving any mining related activities on federal lands in the Basin until the entity holding a lease or permit for that activity has submitted: (1) an acceptable contamination remediation plan, and (2) a full reclamation and performance bond sufficient to return the affected area to its original condition and treat any potential contamination for 50 years following the conclusion of any mining activities.

Exempts sand, gravel, and granite operations that exist on the date of enactment of this Act.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-30 00:00:00

Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2015

 Amends the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to rename: (1) the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 as the Public Lands Service Corps Act of 1993, and (2) the Public Lands Corps as the Public Lands Service Corps (the Corps).

 Establishes the Corps in the Department of Commerce (as well as in the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, as under current law).

Requires: (1) establishment of a department-level office within the Department of the Interior, Forest Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the coordination of Corps activities; and (2) designation of a Corps coordinator for each agency within the Departments of the Interior, of Agriculture, and of Commerce that administers such activities. Establishes an Indian Youth Service Corps liaison.

Permits the enrollment of resource assistants and consulting interns. Sets a maximum enrollment term of two years.

Requires a recruitment program for the Corps.

Instructs the Department concerned, for purposes of training, to take into account training already received by Corps participants enrolled from qualified youth or conservation corps.

Describes the types of natural and cultural resources conservation projects that may be carried out by the Corps.

Authorizes the Corps to provide certain visitor and interpretation services.

Authorizes each Department to make: (1) arrangements for temporary housing for Corps participants in conservation centers, and (2) individual placements of consulting interns to perform management analysis activities for agencies under the Department's jurisdiction carrying out appropriate natural and cultural resources conservation projects.

Authorizes cooperative agreements and competitive grants for Indian tribes and qualified youth or conservation corps to establish Indian Youth Service Corps programs.

Requires the Secretary to issue management guidelines for programs of the Corps.

Revises requirements for: (1) participant living allowances to include certain travel costs; (2) noncompetitive hiring status to cover Indian Youth Service Corps particpants, resource assistants, and consulting interns.

Removes resource assistants from eligibility for national service educational awards.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-30 00:00:00

Fostering Opportunities for Resources and Education Spending through Timber Sales Act of 2015 or the FORESTS Act of 2015

This bill directs the Department of Agriculture to establish at least one Forest Active Management Area within each unit of the National Forest System designated for sustainable forest management for the production of national forest materials (trees, portions of trees, or forest products) and forest active management revenues (derived from the sale of such materials).

The purpose of an Area is to provide a dependable source of:

 payments to states in which a national forest is situated of 25% of specified forest receipts, to be used for the benefit of public schools and public roads; and economic activity through sustainable forest management for each beneficiary county containing System land included within that Area. Forest active management revenues shall be used to make: (1) the 25% payments to states for payment to beneficiary counties for the benefit of public schools and public roads, and (2) deposits into the Knutson-Vandenburg Fund and the salvage sale fund for projects on System land.

This bill amends the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 to extend:

 through FY2018 authorities for secure payments to states and counties containing federal land, and through FY2020 the authority for special projects on federal land and certain county activities. Receipt by a county of Forest Active Management revenues or stewardship project payments shall be offset against 25% payments to the county.

The original method for calculating 25% payments is restored. Beginning October 1, 2015, a state or territorial legislature may not withhold any portion of a 25% payment from the county or counties in which a national forest is situated.

The maximum duration of a stewardship end resulting contract under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 may extend from 10 to 20 years.

The Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior:

 shall pay to the county or counties in which the project site is situated 25% of the monies retained from a contract or agreement for a stewardship contracting project on federal land under its respective jurisdiction, and may procure the services of non-federal employees to perform activities necessary to ensure a project for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-01 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the House reported version is repeated here.)

Crags, Colorado Land Exchange Act of 2015

(Sec. 4) This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA), if the Broadmoor Hotel, Inc., (BHI) offers to convey to the USDA 320 acres of specified nonfederal land in the Pike National Forest in Teller County, Colorado, and a permanent trail easement for the Barr Trail in El Paso County, Colorado, to accept the offer and convey to BHI 83 acres of specified federal land within the Forest, together with a non-exclusive perpetual access easement for BHI to and from such land on Forest Service Road 371.

The nonexclusive perpetual access easement granted to BHI shall allow: (1) BHI to fully maintain, at its own expense, and use Forest Service Road 371 from its junction with Forest Service Road 368 in accordance with historic BHI use and maintenance patterns; and (2) full and continued public and administrative access and use of FSR 371 in accordance with the existing Forest Service travel management plan, or as it may be revised by USDA.

(Sec. 5) The USDA shall determine the values of the lands to be exchanged through appraisals following specified requirements. The values shall be equal, or if they are not equal, equalized as prescribed by this Act.

The appraised value of the federal land parcel shall not reflect any increase or diminution in value due to the existing special use permit to BHI on the parcel and its improvements.

The Barr Trail easement donation shall not be appraised for purposes of this Act.

(Sec. 6) The lands acquired by the USDA under this Act shall, without further USDA action, be permanently withdrawn from all forms of appropriation and disposal under the public land laws (including the mining and mineral leasing laws) and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1930, except to the extent necessary to permit the disposal of the federal land parcel to BHI.

The land acquired by the USDA under this Act shall become part of the Pike-San Isabel National Forest.

It is the intent of Congress that the land exchange directed by this Act be completed within one year of this Act's enactment.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-13 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on October 6, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

(Sec. 1) This bill declares that the approximately one-acre portion of specified land transferred by the United States to Rockingham County, Virginia, that is used for purposes of a child care center, shall not be subject to the use restriction imposed in the deed for the transferred land.

Eliminated is the requirement for the county to include information concerning the use of the transferred land for a child care center in biennial reports to the Department of the Interior.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-14 00:00:00

Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act 

 Directs the Department of Agriculture to establish the community forest demonstration area in a state, consisting of National Forest System (NFS) land, at the request of an Advisory Committee appointed by the governor to manage such land in that state.

Conditions establishment of an area upon: (1) inclusion of at least 200,000 acres of NFS land; (2) a state forest practices law applicable to state or privately owned forest land, or established state silvicultural best forest management practices related to clean water, soil quality, wildlife, or forest health; and (3) an agreement between the governor and the county in which the land is located that requires the county, in using area revenues, to continue to meet specified obligations under applicable state law pursuant to the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

Excludes from a community forest demonstration area land: (1) that is a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System, (2) on which the removal of vegetation is specifically prohibited by federal statute, (3) that is a National Monument, or (4) over which administrative jurisdiction was first assumed by the Forest Service under Title III of such Act.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-14 00:00:00

Small Lands Tracts Conveyance Act

 Requires the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for a state (respecting certain public lands) or the Forest Service (respecting certain National Forest System lands) to select an eligible federal lands parcel for conveyance: (1) in response to a request by an adjacent landholder (any holder of non-federal land that shares one or more boundaries with such a parcel and who requests to purchase such a parcel), or (2) upon the recommendation of the BLM District Office or System unit that exercises administration over such parcel.

Directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to each create a process by which an adjacent landholder may request to purchase an eligible parcel. Instructs that such process be open to the public and available on the Internet.

Bars a conveyed eligible parcel from exceeding 160 acres unless the BLM or the Forest Service approves a request for additional acreage. Permits acquisition by an adjacent landholder of only one eligible parcel a year, subject to an exception.

Instructs the BLM or the Forest Service, as consideration for the sale of an eligible parcel, to require a cash payment in an amount equal to at least the fair market value of such parcel, including the mineral estate, being conveyed.

Requires the proceeds collected from such conveyances to be deposited into a special fund established by this Act and distributed annually to each state in which the federal government owns more than 33% of the land area of such state.

Requires, from amounts collected and deposited: (1) 50% of the amount collected from a conveyance to be distributed to the state in which the conveyance took place, and (2) the remaining 50% to be distributed equally between the remaining states identified pursuant to the preceding paragraph.

Requires states receiving such funds to use them only for: (1) purchasing additional eligible parcels consistent with land use management under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act; and (2) complying with requirements under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act), and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).

Requires the purchaser of an eligible federal lands parcel under this Act to cover the costs to be incurred, or to reimburse the BLM or the Forest Service for the costs incurred, in carrying out the conveyance.

Excludes categorically a conveyance of an eligible federal lands parcel under this Act from the requirement to prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement under NEPA.

(A categorical exclusion under NEPA is a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a federal agency in implementing environmental regulations and for which, therefore, neither an Environmental Assessment nor an Environmental Impact Statement is required.)
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-18 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on June 4, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

National Forest Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2015 

This bill amends the National Forest Foundation Act to authorize the Department of Agriculture to provide during FY2016-FY2018 matching funds for certain administrative and project expenses incurred by the National Forest Foundation.
Topic: Public Lands — Public Lands
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-18 00:00:00

Directs the Department of the Interior, for National Park System land, and the Department of Agriculture, for land under its jurisdiction, to require any film crew of five persons or fewer to obtain a permit and pay an annual fee of $200 to conduct commercial filming activities or similar projects on such land and waterways.