To give livestock operators holding a grazing permit or lease on Federal lands in the State of Arizona the opportunity to relinquish their grazing permit or lease in exchange for compensation, and for other purposes.

October 17, 2003

Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, and Mr. HOLT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

To give livestock operators holding a grazing permit or lease on Federal lands in the State of Arizona the opportunity to relinquish their grazing permit or lease in exchange for compensation, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Arizona Voluntary Grazing Permit Buyout Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds the following:

(1) The grazing of livestock on Federal lands in Arizona is an increasingly difficult undertaking for grazing permittees and lessees due to growing conflicts with other legitimate uses of the same lands, such as environmental protection and burgeoning recreational use.

(2) Sustained drought in the arid Southwest, foreign competition, changing domestic markets, industry restructuring, and individual ranch situations have combined to result in grazing permits and leases becoming stranded investments for many grazing permittees and lessees in Arizona.

(3) Attempts to resolve grazing conflicts with other multiple uses of Federal lands often require extensive range developments and monitoring that greatly increase costs to both grazing permittees and lessees and taxpayers, far out of proportion to the benefit received.

(4) Certain grazing allotments on Federal lands in Arizona have, or are likely to become, unsuitable for livestock production as a result of the combined effect of the aforementioned factors.

(5) The cost of the Federal grazing program in Arizona greatly exceeds revenues to the Federal treasury from grazing fee receipts.

(6) Many grazing permittees and lessees in Arizona have indicated their willingness to end livestock grazing on their Federal grazing allotments in exchange for a one-time payment to reasonably compensate them for the effort and investment that they have made in such allotments.

(7) A broad coalition of ranchers and environmental and conservation groups in Arizona have agreed that a voluntary program to buyout grazing permits and leases would provide the best solution to the aforementioned problems.

(8) Compensating grazing permittees and lessees to end livestock grazing on Federal lands would help recapitalize an ailing sector of rural Arizona by providing economic options to grazing permittees and lessees that do not presently exist, thus allowing them to restructure their grazing operations or start new businesses.

(9) Reasonable compensation will help alleviate the need for grazing permittees and lessees to sell or subdivide their private lands.

(10) A voluntary buyout program in Arizona would resolve growing conflicts between livestock grazing and other multiple uses in Arizona, and would also be fiscally prudent and socially just.

(11) The operation of a voluntary buyout program in Arizona would provide Congress with critical information concerning the possible expansion of such a program nation-wide.

SEC. 3. ARIZONA VOLUNTARY GRAZING PERMIT AND LEASE BUYOUT PROGRAM.

(a) DEFINITIONS- In this section:

(1) The term `Secretary concerned' means the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Energy, or the Secretary of Defense, as appropriate, who has administrative jurisdiction over the Federal lands and the grazing permit or lease at issue.

(2) The terms `grazing permit or lease' and `grazing permit and lease' mean any document authorizing the use, for a term of at least five years, of Federal lands in Arizona for the purpose of grazing domestic livestock.

(3) The terms `permittee or lessee' and `permittees and lessees' refer to a livestock operator who holds, or livestock operators who hold, a valid term grazing permit or lease.

(4) The term `grazing allotment' means a designated portion of Federal land upon which domestic livestock are permitted to graze by a term grazing permit or lease.

(5) The term `animal unit month' means the amount of forage needed to sustain one animal unit for one month. Animal unit is defined by the Secretary concerned issuing the permit or lease.

(6) The term `range developments' means structures, fences and other permanent fixtures placed on Federal lands for the furtherance of the purpose of grazing domestic livestock, and specifically not including rolling stock, livestock and diversions of water from Federal lands onto non-Federal lands.

(b) WAIVER OF EXISTING GRAZING PERMIT OR LEASE- A permittee or lessee may at any time waive to the Secretary concerned a valid existing grazing permit or lease authorizing livestock grazing on Federal land in Arizona.

(c) CANCELLATION OF WAIVED GRAZING PERMIT OR LEASE- The Secretary concerned shall cancel grazing permits or leases waived under subsection (b) and permanently retire the associated grazing allotments from domestic livestock grazing use, notwithstanding any other provision of law.

(d) COMPENSATION- A permittee or lessee who waives a permit or lease to the Secretary concerned under subsection (b) shall be compensated at $175 per animal unit month based on the average over the last 10 years of the numbers of animal unit months permitted to the permittee or lessee or the predecessors of the permittee or lessee, not including suspended animal unit months. In the case of an ephemeral grazing permit or lease, the permittee or lessee shall be compensated for the average over the last 10 years of the actual animal unit months of grazing use. If a permittee or lessee is in arrears of Federal grazing fees, the amount of fees in arrears shall be deducted from the amount of compensation otherwise due the permittee or lessee under this subsection.

(e) EFFECT OF WAIVER ON RANGE DEVELOPMENTS- A permittee or lessee that waives a permit or lease to the Secretary concerned under subsection (b) and receives compensation under subsection (d) shall be deemed to have waived any claim to all range developments on the subject grazing allotment or allotments, notwithstanding any other provision of law.

(f) RELATION TO OTHER AUTHORITY- Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the authority of the Secretary concerned to otherwise modify or terminate grazing permits or leases without compensation. Nothing in this section shall be construed to create a property right in any grazing permit or lease on Federal lands.

(g) RETIREMENT OF CERTAIN LAND- The Secretary concerned shall not issue grazing permits or leases for grazing allotments for which no valid current grazing permit or lease exists as of the date of the enactment of this Act and shall retire such grazing allotments from livestock use as provided in subsection (c).

(h) EFFECT OF NONUSE OR REDUCED USE- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a permittee or lessee may opt not to graze a grazing allotment or to graze the grazing allotment at less than the minimum permitted level and still retain the grazing permit or lease for the remainder of its term. The Secretary concerned shall not take into consideration such non-use or reduced use of a grazing allotment when considering a request for the renewal of the grazing permit or lease.

(i) RELATION TO EMINENT DOMAIN- Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the use of eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring a grazing permit or lease.

(j) RELATION TO OTHER VALID EXISTING RIGHTS- Nothing in this section shall affect the allocation, ownership, interest, or control, in existence as of the date of the enactment of this Act, of any water, water right, or any other valid existing right held by the United States, an Indian tribe, State or local government, or private individual, partnership, or corporation.

END