[House Report 115-305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
115th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1st Session } { 115-305
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CONFIRMING STATE LAND GRANTS FOR EDUCATION ACT
_______
September 12, 2017.--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. 2582]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 2582) to authorize the State of Utah to select
certain lands that are available for disposal under the Pony
Express Resource Management Plan to be used for the support and
benefit of State institutions, and for other purposes, having
considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment
and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.
The amendment is as follows:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Confirming State Land Grants for
Education Act''.
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION.
(a) In General.--Subject to valid existing rights, the State of Utah
may select any lands in T6S and T7S, R1W, Salt Lake Base and Meridian,
that are owned by the United States, under the administrative
jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, and identified as
available for disposal by land exchange in the Record of Decision for
the Pony Express Resource Management Plan and Rangeland Program Summary
for Utah County (January 1990), as amended by the Pony Express Plan
Amendment (November 1997), in fulfillment of the land grants made in
sections 6, 8, and 12 of the Act of July 16, 1894 (28 Stat. 107) as
generally depicted on the map entitled ``Proposed Utah County Quantity
Grants'' and dated June 27, 2017, to further the purposes of the State
of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, without
further land use planning action by the Bureau of Land Management.
(b) Application.--The criteria listed in Decision 3 of the Lands
Program of the resource management plan described in subsection (a)
shall not apply to any land selected under subsection (a).
(c) Effect on Limitation.--Nothing in this Act affects the limitation
established under section 2815(d) of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Public Law 106-65).
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 2582 is to authorize the State of Utah
to select certain lands that are available for disposal under
the Pony Express Resource Management Plan to be used for the
support and benefit of State institutions.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
The Utah Enabling Act (28 Stat. 107), passed in 1894,
granted Utah the right to select public lands for the support
and benefit of state institutions, including an agricultural
college (now Utah State University), in addition to the more
familiar school land grants. Lands granted to Utah under this
Act are managed by the Utah School and Institutional Trust
Lands Administration (SITLA), which is an independent state
agency that manages Utah's 3.4 million acres of trust lands.\1\
These trust lands generate revenue primarily through resource
extraction and real estate sales.\2\
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\1\State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration webpage, Our Agency, https://trustlands.utah.gov/our-
agency/
\2\Wendine Thompson Dawson and Alden Boetsc ``Utah Trust Lands &
Education Funding'' the Sonoran Institute/Lincoln Institute of Land
Policy Joint Venture and Children's Land Alliance Supporting Schools
(CLASS) https://datatoolkits.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/managing-state-
trust-lands/state/ed-funding-ut.pdf
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Several thousand acres of unfulfilled selection rights are
currently outstanding. In 1998, SITLA filed an application with
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to select 444.05 acres of
BLM land near the City of Eagle Mountain in Utah County for the
benefit of the Utah State University land trust. This selection
application was subsequently modified to add an additional 80
acres near the City of Saratoga Springs.\3\
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\3\Information provided by the Utah School and Institutional Trust
Lands Administration to the Committee on Natural Resources
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For several years, BLM worked to process this application,
and SITLA has incurred significant expenses in obtaining
necessary archaeological clearances for the selection. However,
in 2006, BLM determined that the applicable federal land
management plan did not allow BLM to proceed with the
selection. The basis for this decision was that, although the
subject lands were classified in the land management plan for
disposal by land exchange, the disposal language did not
expressly refer to state selections, so selections (as opposed
to land exchanges) could not be processed.\4\
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\4\Ibid.
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SITLA believes that under applicable legal authority state
selections are in fact authorized under the land management
plan, but BLM disagrees. SITLA has also requested that BLM
consider a plan amendment to authorize the proposed selections,
but BLM declined to do so due to inadequate staff and funding
to process the plan amendment.\5\
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\5\Ibid.
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H.R. 2582 would correct the legal technicality, and confirm
that BLM may process the current 500-acre selection, and future
state selections in the immediate area, without further land
use planning. The selected lands would still be subject to
environmental reviews before they are transferred to SITLA.
This will allow the United States to fulfill commitments made
in the Utah Enabling Act to provide land for support of higher
education and other public purposes.
COMMITTEE ACTION
H.R. 2582 was introduced on May 22, 2017, by Congresswoman
Mia B. Love (R-UT). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee
on Federal Lands. On July 14, 2017, the Subcommittee held a
hearing on the bill. On July 25, 2017, the Natural Resources
Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee was
discharged by unanimous consent. Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT)
offered an amendment designated #1; it was adopted by unanimous
consent. Congressman Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ) offered an
amendment designated 001; it was adopted by unanimous consent.
No further amendments were offered, and the bill, as amended,
was ordered favorably reported to the House of Representatives
by unanimous consent on July 26, 2017.
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 and the Congressional Budget Act of
1974. With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and
(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives
and sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of
1974, the Committee has received the enclosed cost estimate for
the bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, September 11, 2017.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 2582, the
Confirming State Land Grants for Education Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Jeff LaFave.
Sincerely,
Keith Hall,
Director.
Enclosure.
H.R. 2582--Confirming State Land Grants for Education Act
H.R. 2582 would allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
to process the selection of 520 acres of federal land in Utah
under the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. That act authorized the
state of Utah to select certain federal lands to be held in
trust by the School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration (SITLA), an independent state agency, for the
benefit of the state. The state used that authority to select
520 acres of land that BLM identified for disposal. However,
because BLM's land use plan for the area containing the
selected lands does not allow land to be disposed of through
the land selection process, the agency cannot transfer those
lands to the state without revising its existing plan. Based on
information from BLM, CBO does not expect the agency to make
the necessary revisions to that plan within the next 10 years.
Under the bill, BLM would be authorized to process SITLA's
land selections without revising its existing land use plan.
The affected lands currently generate receipts from grazing
allotments, rights-of-way, and gravel pits. Based on historical
collections, CBO estimates those receipts will total less than
$25,000 a year over the next 10 years. Thus, CBO estimates that
allowing SITLA to take the affected lands into trust would not
have a significant effect on offsetting receipts (which are
recorded as reductions in direct spending) over the 2018-2027
period. Because enacting the bill would affect direct spending,
pay-as-you-go procedures apply. The bill would not affect
revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting the bill would not increase net
direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 2582 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would benefit the state of Utah and local governments by
expediting the transfer of federal lands to the state. The
transfer could increase revenue from resource development on
state trust lands; those revenues are used to fund public
schools in Utah. Any costs incurred by the state of Utah or
local governments associated would result from voluntary
commitments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jeff LaFave. The
estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
2. 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 the State of Utah to
select certain lands that are available for disposal under the
Pony Express Resource Management Plan to be used for the
support and benefit of State institutions.
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. This bill does not contain any
directed rule makings.
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
This bill makes no changes to existing law.