[House Report 114-76]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
114th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1st Session } { 114-76
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TO AUTHORIZE EARLY REPAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS TO THE BUREAU OF
RECLAMATION WITHIN THE NORTHPORT IRRIGATION DISTRICT IN THE STATE OF
NEBRASKA
_______
April 15, 2015.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted
the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 404]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 404) to authorize early repayment of obligations
to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport Irrigation
District in the State of Nebraska, 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. 404 is to authorize early repayment of
obligations to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport
Irrigation District in the State of Nebraska.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
Under federal law, any irrigation district that receives
contracted water from a Bureau of Reclamation facility must
repay its allocated portion of the capital costs of the federal
water project. These repayment costs are typically set forth in
long-term capital repayment contracts between the irrigation
district and the federal government.\1\
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\1\http://www.ccrh.org/comm/moses/primary/reclamact.html.
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Northport, located in western Nebraska, is one of four
irrigation districts that receive water from the federal North
Platte Project. Water for Northport is conveyed 80 miles from
the Guernsey reservoir through the Tri-State Canal, which is
privately owned and operated by the Farmers Irrigation
District.\2\ In return for allowing the water to be conveyed
through the Tri-State canal, Farmers receives compensation from
Northport. Pursuant to a 1958 amendment to the Northport/Bureau
of Reclamation contract, if the amount of the carriage fee owed
to Farmers by Northport is more than $8,000 per year, Northport
is not obligated to make its annual capital repayment to the
federal government.\3\ According to a Northport official, the
annual carriage fee can be anywhere from $80,000 to
$100,000.\4\ Since carriage fees have been over $8,000 per year
since the early 1950s, Northport's capital repayment debt to
the federal government has remained at approximately $923,000
for over six decades.\5\ As long as Northport owes the debt,
its landowners are subject to a 960 irrigated acre planting
limitation and paperwork requirements that must be met prior to
getting water each year, as set forth in the Reclamation Reform
Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-293).\6\
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\2\http://www.usbr.gov/projects/
Project.jsp?proj_Name=North+Platte+Project.
\3\http://naturalresources.house.gov/UploadedFiles/WPLetter1.pdf.
\4\Natural Resources Republican staff conversation with Northport
Irrigation District Board Member George Hall on June 3, 2014.
\5\http://naturalresources.house.gov/UploadedFiles/WPLetter1.pdf.
\6\Natural Resources Republican staff conversation with Northport
Irrigation District Board Member George Hall on June 3, 2014.
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There are several landowners within Northport who have
reached retirement age with plans to leave the real estate to
family members who have already accumulated acres of land.
Those combined acres will make additional families subject to
the 960 irrigated acre planting limitation. Several landowners
within Northport are willing to repay their portion of the
capital repayment obligations owed to the federal government to
avoid being subject to the federal requirements of Public Law
97-293. The same law, however, prohibits these landowners from
making such accelerated or lump sum payments. According to a
Northport board member, approximately a third of the landowners
may use the authorities granted in H.R. 404 to repay the
federal government.\7\
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\7\Id.
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Allowing individual landowners the ability to accelerate
payments is based on two relatively recent precedents: The
Southern Idaho Bureau of Reclamation Repayment Act (Section 508
of Public Law 110-229)\8\ and The Southern Oregon Bureau of
Reclamation Repayment Act (Public Law 109-138)\9\. These public
laws and H.R. 404 waive Section 213 of the Reclamation Reform
Act of 1982, which prohibits any early repayment unless the
repayment contract between an irrigation district and the
United States allowed for prepayment of the contract at the
time the Reclamation Reform Act was enacted.
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\8\http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-110publ229/html/PLAW-
110publ229.htm.
\9\http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ138/html/PLAW-
109publ138.htm.
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In the 113th Congress, the Committee on Natural Resources
reported an identical measure, H.R. 4562 (House Report 113-
536). This bill passed the House of Representatives by voice
vote on July 22, 2014, but the Senate failed to act on the
bill.
COMMITTEE ACTION
H.R. 404 was introduced on January 16, 2015, by Congressman
Adrian Smith (R-NE). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee
on Water, Power and Oceans. On March 24, 2015, the Natural
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee
on Water, Power and Oceans was discharged by unanimous consent.
No amendments were offered and the bill was ordered favorably
reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous consent
on March 25, 2015.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1. Early repayment of construction costs
Subsection (a) allows any landowner within the Northport
Irrigation District to repay, at any time, the construction
costs of project facilities allocated to the landowner's land
within Northport, notwithstanding Section 213 of the
Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-293).
Subsection (b) stipulates that upon full repayment of all
costs described in subsection (a), the parcels of land shall
not be subject to the ownership and full-cost pricing
limitations under the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (Public
Law 97-293).
Subsection (c) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to
provide a certificate of repayment described in section
213(b)(1) of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-
293) at the request of the landowner who has repaid the costs
described in subsection (a).
Subsection (d) states that nothing in the bill: (1)
modifies any contractual rights under, or amends or reopens,
the reclamation contract between Northport and the United
States; or (2) modifies any rights, obligations, or
relationships between Northport and landowners within Northport
under Nebraska State law.
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. 404--A bill to authorize early repayment of obligations to the
Bureau of Reclamation within the Northpoint Irrigation District
in the State of Nebraska
H.R. 404 would allow individual landowners in the Northport
Irrigation District in Nebraska to repay their share of the
cost to build the North Platte Project in Nebraska. Based on
information from the Bureau of Reclamation, CBO estimates that
enacting the legislation would have an insignificant effect on
the federal budget. Because the legislation would affect direct
spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting H.R. 404
would not affect revenues.
Currently, the Northpoint Irrigation District is not making
payments to the bureaus on the district's outstanding
obligation of $924,000 that it owes for the construction of the
irrigation project. Based on information from the bureau, CBO
does not expect the district to begin repaying this debt during
the next several years.
H.R. 404 would allow the 25 individual landowners in the
district to pay their portion of the balance early. Based on
information from the district, we expect that about half of
those landowners would do so under the bill. CBO estimates that
those payments would increase offsetting receipts to the
federal government (which are treated as reductions in direct
spending) by abut $440,000 over the 2016-2025 period.
H.R. 404 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Aurora Swanson.
This estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, 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. Enactment of this
bill would increase offsetting receipts by approximately
$440,000 over the 2016-2015 time period, according to the
Congressional Budget Office.
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 authorize early repayment of
obligations to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport
Irrigation District in the State of Nebraska.
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
If enacted, this bill would make no changes in existing
law.
[all]