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Congressman Peter J. Lucas and Congresswoman Andrea Martinez, for themselves, Congressman Richard Williams and Congressman Amos Goodwin,Mr. Greenberg, propose
A BILL to prevent the purchase by the U.S. Government of further lands without an urgent need, to re-direct a portion of the savings to addressing the repair backlog in existing lands, and for other and connected purposes.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled as Follows
Section 1 Short Title
This Act may be cited as the “Federal Land Management” Act of 2013.
Section 2 Findings
(1) The Federal Government currently owns around one third of all land in the United States.
(2) According to the Congressional Budget Office, relevant agencies would better meet “environmental objectives such as habitat protection and access to recreation ... by improving management in currently held areas rather than providing minimal management over a larger domain.”
(3) According to the Government Accountability Office, the National Park Service alone has a maintenance backlog of $5 billion.
(4) On average, the Federal Government spends $466 million a year buying further land while the maintenance backlog on existing lands is still growing. This equates to a ten yearly cost of $4.6 billion.
Section 3 Moratorium on Land Purchases
(1) Except as detailed in Section 4 below, the Federal Government shall not purchase any further lands.
Section 4 Exceptions
(1) The moratorium in Section 3 above shall not apply to land transfers from state, local, territorial and tribal governments or between government agencies provided
(i) these are for no or only nominal consideration, and (ii) there is a valid reason for the transfer, and (iii) details of the transfers and reasons are submitted annually in a report to a relevant Congressional committee.
(2)
(i) This Act does not apply to any purchase that has already reached a stage involving legal commitment on the date this Act is signed into law. (ii) If the purchase of a particular parcel of land is already being considered at an advanced stage when this Act is signed into law, the purchase may proceed on the authorisation of the Secretary of the Interior, provided that the purchase can be met out of the Department’s current budget and the Secretary reports to a relevant Congressional committee submitting details of and valid reasons for the purchase within 30 days of completing the purchase.
(3) With the authorisation of the Secretary of the Interior, purchases of land may be authorised, provided that (i) the total spend on such purchases in one budgetary year does not exceed $25 million (ii) details of the purchases and valid reasons for them are submitted to a relevant Congressional committee annually, and within 30 days of competing any purchase involving a sum of $1 million or more.
(4) Nothing in this Act prevents a specific appropriation or authorisation for the purchase of specific parcels of land or the purchase of land for a specific purpose and to a specified maximum spend being authorised by Congress.
(5) In cases only of extreme urgency and necessity, the President may by Executive Order authorise further purchases above the limits imposed by sub section (3) above, provided that (i) he shall report within 14 days to a relevant Congressional committee with details of the transaction including reasons for the purchase and reasons for the urgency (ii) the cost of any such purchase shall, if Congress subsequently direct, be counted against the budget of the Office of the President.
Section 5 National Parks Service Maintenance Backlog
(1) A sum of $500 million shall be made available to the National Parks Service for the purposes of clearing a portion of the Service’s maintenance backlog.
(2) This sum shall be held by the Treasury and paid only for specific projects as and when authorised by the Secretary of the Interior following proper scrutiny.
(3) The sums appropriated shall be used for priority maintenance and repairs.
(4) Any sums not paid or committed within 3 years of this Act being signed into law shall be returned to general funds.
(5) The National Parks Service shall, 3 years from the date this Act is signed into law, report to an appropriate Congressional committee on the extent of their maintenance backlog and the extent of reductions in the same over the previous 3 years.
Section 6 Enactment
This Act shall have effect upon being signed into law.
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