[House Report 113-57]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
113th Congress Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1st Session 113-57
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HILL CREEK CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT ACT
_______
May 14, 2013.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Hastings of Washington, from the Committee on Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 356]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 356) to clarify authority granted under the Act
entitled ``An Act to define the exterior boundary of the Uintah
and Ouray Indian Reservation in the State of Utah, and for
other purposes'', having considered the same, report favorably
thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.
Purpose of the Bill
The purpose of H.R. 356 is to clarify authority granted
under the Act entitled ``An Act to define the exterior boundary
of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in the State of
Utah, and for other purposes.''
Background and Need for Legislation
H.R. 356, the Hill Creek Cultural Preservation and Energy
Development Act, authorizes an acre-for-acre land exchange to
resolve a complex split-estate problem within an area known as
the Hill Creek Extension of the Uintah and Ouray Indian
Reservation of the Ute Tribe of Utah. Specifically, H.R. 356
authorizes the State of Utah to exchange subsurface rights it
owns beneath culturally and environmentally sensitive tribal
lands in the southern portion of the Hill Creek Extension. In
return for relinquishing this property, the State acquires an
equal number of acres of federal subsurface administered by the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the northern part of the
Hill Creek Extension. These lands are within an actively
developed area where the Tribe does not object to oil and gas
leasing. The State subsurface lands concerned in H.R. 356 are
administered by the School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration (SITLA), which supports K-12 education in Utah.
To hold the U.S. Treasury and SITLA financially harmless,
H.R. 356 reserves to the federal government an overriding
mineral interest in all lands conveyed to the State equal to
the percentage of revenue that the United States would have
retained under the Mineral Leasing Act had the lands remained
in federal ownership. In a similar fashion, the bill reserves
to the State an equal overriding interest in the lands conveyed
to the federal government.
A detailed historical background concerning the Uintah and
Ouray Indian Reservation and SITLA, as well as an analysis of
the justification for H.R. 356, may be found in House Report
112-509, the Committee Report accompanying H.R. 4027. H.R. 356
is nearly identical to H.R. 4027, which passed the House in the
112th Congress but did not move in the Senate. H.R. 356 does
omit a provision that was included in H.R. 4027 to terminate
the overriding mineral interests of the United States and the
State of Utah after 30 years. This change was made to address
concerns expressed by the Administration in a hearing held by
the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs on March
20, 2012. The State of Utah and the Ute Tribe strongly support
enactment of this legislation.
Committee Action
H.R. 356 was introduced on January 23, 2013, by Congressman
Rob Bishop (R-UT). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the
Subcommittees on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs and Energy
and Mineral Resources. On April 24, 2013, the Full Natural
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittees
on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs and Energy and Mineral
Resources were discharged by unanimous consent. No amendments
were offered, and the bill was then adopted and ordered
favorably reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous
consent.
Committee Oversight Findings and Recommendations
Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.
Compliance With House Rule XIII
1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the
Rules of the House of Representatives requires an estimate and
a comparison by the Committee of the costs which would be
incurred in carrying out this bill. However, clause 3(d)(2)(B)
of that rule provides that this requirement does not apply when
the Committee has included in its report a timely submitted
cost estimate of the bill prepared by the Director of the
Congressional Budget Office under section 402 of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Under clause 3(c)(3) of rule
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section
403 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee has
received the following cost estimate for this bill from the
Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
H.R. 356--Hill Creek Cultural Preservation and Energy Development Act
H.R. 356 would authorize a conveyance of mineral rights
within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah among
the state of Utah's School and Institutional Trust Land
Administration (SITLA), the federal government, and the Ute
Indian Tribe. SITLA currently owns the subsurface mineral
rights to approximately 18,000 acres in the Hill Creek
Extension of the reservation; however, the surface rights to
that land are held in trust for the Ute Indian Tribe by the
federal government. The legislation would authorize SITLA to
relinquish to the Ute Indian Tribe its subsurface mineral
rights in exchange for the subsurface rights to about 18,000
acres of other land within the Hill Creek Extension owned by
the federal government.
CBO estimates that the legislation would have no
significant impact on the federal budget over the 2014-2023
period. Enacting H.R. 356 would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
H.R. 356 would authorize a transfer of federally owned
subsurface mineral rights for an equivalent number of acres of
state land. However, the acres transferred may not have the
same value because mineral deposits are not evenly spread
across all areas. To compensate for such a potential imbalance,
H.R. 356 would preserve a royalty interest in the value of any
subsurface minerals that are developed on the transferred
properties for the state and the federal governments.
H.R. 356 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
Enacting the bill would benefit the tribe and state.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Martin von
Gnechten. The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
2. Section 308(a) of Congressional Budget Act. As required
by clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives and section 308(a) of the Congressional Budget
Act of 1974, this bill does not contain any new budget
authority, spending authority, credit authority, or an increase
or decrease in revenues or tax expenditures. CBO estimates that
implementing this legislation would have no significant impact
on the federal budget.
3. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or
objective of this bill is to clarify authority granted under
the Act entitled ``An Act to define the exterior boundary of
the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in the State of Utah,
and for other purposes.''
Earmark Statement
This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives.
Compliance With Public Law 104-4
This bill contains no unfunded mandates.
Compliance With H. Res. 5
Directed Rule Making. The Chairman does not believe that
this bill directs any executive branch official to conduct any
specific rule-making proceedings.
Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was
not included in any report from the Government Accountability
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law
98-169) as relating to other programs.
Preemption of State, Local or Tribal Law
This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or
tribal law.
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (new matter is
printed in italic and existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
ACT OF MARCH 11, 1948
AN ACT To define the exterior boundary of the Uintah and Ouray Indian
Reservation in the State of Utah, and for other purposes.
* * * * * * *
Sec. 5. In order to further clarify authorizations under
this Act, the State of Utah is hereby authorized to relinquish
to the United States, for the benefit of the Ute Indian Tribe
of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, State school trust or
other State-owned subsurface mineral lands located beneath the
surface estate delineated in Public Law 440 (approved March 11,
1948) and south of the border between Grand County, Utah, and
Uintah County, Utah, and select in lieu of such relinquished
lands, on an acre-for-acre basis, any subsurface mineral lands
of the United States located beneath the surface estate
delineated in Public Law 440 (approved March 11, 1948) and
north of the border between Grand County, Utah, and Uintah
County, Utah, subject to the following conditions:
(1) Reservation by united states.--The Secretary of
the Interior shall reserve an overriding interest in
that portion of the mineral estate comprised of
minerals subject to leasing under the Mineral Leasing
Act (30 U.S.C. 171 et seq.) in any mineral lands
conveyed to the State.
(2) Extent of overriding interest.--The overriding
interest reserved by the United States under paragraph
(1) shall consist of--
(A) 50 percent of any bonus bid or other
payment received by the State as consideration
for securing any lease or authorization to
develop such mineral resources;
(B) 50 percent of any rental or other
payments received by the State as consideration
for the lease or authorization to develop such
mineral resources;
(C) a 6.25 percent overriding royalty on the
gross proceeds of oil and gas production under
any lease or authorization to develop such oil
and gas resources; and
(D) an overriding royalty on the gross
proceeds of production of such minerals other
than oil and gas, equal to 50 percent of the
royalty rate established by the Secretary of
the Interior by regulation as of October 1,
2011.
(3) Reservation by state of utah.--The State of Utah
shall reserve, for the benefit of its State school
trust, an overriding interest in that portion of the
mineral estate comprised of minerals subject to leasing
under the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.)
in any mineral lands relinquished by the State to the
United States.
(4) Extent of overriding interest.--The overriding
interest reserved by the State under paragraph (3)
shall consist of--
(A) 50 percent of any bonus bid or other
payment received by the United States as
consideration for securing any lease or
authorization to develop such mineral resources
on the relinquished lands;
(B) 50 percent of any rental or other
payments received by the United States as
consideration for the lease or authorization to
develop such mineral resources;
(C) a 6.25 percent overriding royalty on the
gross proceeds of oil and gas production under
any lease or authorization to develop such oil
and gas resources; and
(D) an overriding royalty on the gross
proceeds of production of such minerals other
than oil and gas, equal to 50 percent of the
royalty rate established by the Secretary of
the Interior by regulation as of October 1,
2011.
(5) No obligation to lease.--Neither the United
States nor the State shall be obligated to lease or
otherwise develop oil and gas resources in which the
other party retains an overriding interest under this
section.
(6) Cooperative agreements.--The Secretary of the
Interior is authorized to enter into cooperative
agreements with the State and the Ute Indian Tribe of
the Uintah and Ouray Reservation to facilitate the
relinquishment and selection of lands to be conveyed
under this section, and the administration of the
overriding interests reserved hereunder.