§ 7101. Purposes

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

1. 2008

   Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000

   Pub. L. 106–393 § 2 · 114 Stat. 1607

   Enacted · 16 U.S.C. § 7101

   (Pub. L. 106–393, § 2, as added Pub. L. 110–343, div. C, title VI, § 601(a), Oct. 3, 2008, 122 Stat. 3893.)

   Source evidence

   Code source credit
   (Pub. L. 106–393, § 2, as added Pub. L. 110–343, div. C, title VI, § 601(a), Oct. 3, 2008, 122 Stat. 3893.)

   Enacted provision · exact public law section
   SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. (a) Findings.— The Congress finds the following: (1) The National Forest System, which is managed by the United States Forest Service, was established in 1907 and has grown to include approximately 192,000,000 acres of Federal lands. (2) The public domain lands known as revested Oregon and California Railroad grant lands and the reconveyed Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands, which are managed predominantly by the Bureau of Land Management were returned to Federal ownership in 1916 and 1919 and now comprise approximately 2,600,000 acres of Federal lands. (3) Congress recognized that, by its decision to secure these lands in Federal ownership, the counties in which these lands are situated would be deprived of revenues they would otherwise receive if the lands were held in private ownership. (4) These same counties have expended public funds year after year to provide services, such as education, road construction and maintenance, search and rescue, law enforcement, waste removal, and fire protection, that directly benefit these Federal lands and people who use these lands. (5) To accord a measure of compensation to the affected counties for the critical services they provide to both county residents and visitors to these Federal lands, Congress determined that the Federal Government should share with these counties a portion of the revenues the United States receives from these Federal lands. (6) Congress enacted in 1908 and subsequently amended a law that requires that 25 percent of the revenues derived from National Forest System lands be paid to States for use by the counties in which the lands are situated for the benefit of public schools and roads. (7) Congress enacted in 1937 and subsequently amended a law that requires that 75 percent of the revenues derived from the revested and reconveyed grant lands be paid to the counties in which those lands are situated to be used as are other county funds, of which 50 percent is to be used as other county funds. (8) For several decades primarily due to the growth of the Federal timber sale program, counties dependent on and supportive of these Federal lands received and relied on increasing shares of these revenues to provide funding for schools and road maintenance. (9) In recent years, the principal source of these revenues, Federal timber sales, has been sharply curtailed and, as the volume of timber sold annually from most of the Federal lands has decreased precipitously, so too have the revenues shared with the affected counties. This decline in shared revenues has affected educational funding and road maintenance for many counties. (11) In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, Congress recognized this trend and ameliorated its adverse consequences by providing an alternative annual safety net payment to 72 counties in Oregon, Washington, and northern California in which Federal timber sales had been restricted or prohibited by administrative and judicial decisions to protect the northern spotted owl. (12) The authority for these particular safety net payments is expiring and no comparable authority has been granted for alternative payments to counties elsewhere in the United States that have suffered similar losses in shared revenues from the Federal lands and in the funding for schools and roads those revenues provide. (13) There is a need to stabilize education and road maintenance funding through predictable payments to the affected counties, job creation in those counties, and other opportunities associated with restoration, maintenance, and stewardship of Federal lands. (14) Both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management face significant backlogs in infrastructure maintenance and ecosystem restoration that are difficult to address through annual appropriations. (15) There is a need to build new, and strengthen existing, relationships and to improve management of public lands and waters. (b) Purposes.— The purposes of this Act are as follows: (1) To stabilize payments to counties to provide funding for schools and roads that supplements other available funds. (2) To make additional investments in, and create additional employment opportunities through, projects that improve the maintenance of existing infrastructure, implement stewardship objectives that enhance forest ecosystems, and restore and improve land health and water quality. Such projects shall enjoy broad-based support with objectives that may include, but are not limited to— (A) road, trail, and infrastructure maintenance or obliteration; (B) soil productivity improvement; (C) improvements in forest ecosystem health; (D) watershed restoration and maintenance; (E) restoration, maintenance and improvement of wildlife and fish habitat; (F) control of noxious and exotic weeds; and (G) reestablishment of native species. (3) To improve cooperative relationships among the people that use and care for Federal lands and the agencies that manage these lands.

1 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision