109th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2569
To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within
their borders in lieu of receiving five per centum of the proceeds of the
sale of public land lying within said States as provided by their respective
Enabling Acts.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 6, 2006
Mr. HATCH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To authorize Western States to make selections of public land within
their borders in lieu of receiving five per centum of the proceeds of the
sale of public land lying within said States as provided by their respective
Enabling Acts.
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 `Action Plan for Public Lands and Education
Act of 2005'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Western States, as a group, are falling behind in education funding
as measured by growth of real per pupil expenditures from 1979 to 1998.
(2) Eleven of the 12 States with the lowest real growth in per pupil expenditures
are Western States.
(3) The growth rate of real per pupil expenditures in the 13 Western States
is less than half such rate in the 37 other States (28 percent versus
57 percent).
(4) On effect of less funding for public education in the West is higher
pupil-per-teacher ratios.
(5) Ten of the twelve States with the largest pupil-per-teacher ratios
are Western States.
(6) On average, the 13 Western States have 3 more students per classroom
than the 37 other States.
(7) Over the next 10 years, the rate of enrollment growth is projected
to be much higher in Western States than in other States.
(8) On average, the rate of enrollment growth of Western States is projected
to increase dramatically, while the rate of enrollment growth of other
States is projected to actually decrease.
(9) The State and local taxes of Western States as a percentage of personal
income are as high as or higher than other States.
(10) Despite the fact that Western States tax at a comparable rate and
allocate as much of their budgets to public education as other States,
Western States have lower real growth in per pupil expenditures and have
higher pupil-per-teacher ratios.
(11) The Federal Government is the source and potential solver of the
problem because of the enormous amount of land the Federal Government
owns in Western States.
(12) All States east of an imaginery vertical line from Montana to New
Mexico have, on average, 4.1 percent of their land federally owned, while
the Western States on average have 51.9 percent of their land federally
owned.
(13) The Acts enabling the people of territories of the American West
to form their constitutions and State governments and providing for the
admission of such States into the Union on equal footing with the original
States, included a common provision of which the following example is
typical `That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public land
lying within said States, which shall be sold by the United States subsequent
to the admission of said State into the Union, after deducting all the
expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said State, to be
used as a permanent fund, the interest of which only shall be expended
for the support of the common schools within said State.'.
(14) The plain language of these enabling acts proclaims that the public
land `shall be sold by the United States' subsequent to the admission
of the States into the Union.
(15) The United States honored the foregoing language by selling public
land within the Western States until the passage of the Federal Land Policy
and Management Act of 1976, wherein Congress declared that the policy
of the United States was to retain public land in Federal ownership and
management.
(16) The United States has broken its solemn compact with the Western
States and breached its fiduciary duty to the school children who are
designated beneficiaries of the sale of public land under the terms of
the respective enabling Acts of the Western States.
(17) The current shortfall in funding public education in the Western
States requires immediate Congressional action to remedy the above-described
discriminatory Federal land policy and prevent the further disadvantaging
of the school children of the Western States.
(18) The most efficient and cost effective remedy now available to the
United States is to grant to the Western States 5 percent of the remaining
federal land located within each State, authorizing each State to select
such land from the unappropriated public land of the United States within
the boundaries of said State as will satisfy the grant.
SEC. 3. QUANTITY GRANTS TO WESTERN STATES FOR EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT.
(a) Quantity Land Grants- Instead of receiving, for the support of the common
schools, 5 percent of the proceeds of the sales of federally owned land
lying within the Western States which have not been sold by the United States
as of July 1, 2005, grants of land are hereby made to the Western States.
The amount of land granted to each State shall be equal to 5 percent of
the number of acres of federally owned land within the State as of July
1, 2005.
(1) IN GENERAL- Each Western State shall select from the unappropriated
public lands within the borders of the State in such manner as the legislature
of the State may provide, land equal in acreage to five percent of the
federally owned land in the State as of July 1, 2005.
(2) CALCULATION OF ACREAGE AND NOTIFICATION OF STATE- The Secretary shall
calculate the exact acreage of federally owned land in each Western State
as of July 1, 2005, and designate the unappropriated public land, as defined
herein, eligible for selection by the State. The Secretary shall communicate
to each of the Western States the respective acreage calculation and designation
of land eligible for selection not later than 1 year after the date of
the enactment of this Act.
(c) Application of Certain Law- Selection and transfer of land under this
Act shall not be considered a major Federal action for the purposes of section
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
(d) Mineral and Oil and Gas Rights-
(1) IN GENERAL- All mineral, oil, and gas rights to the land selected
by the Western States under this Act shall become the property of the
relevant Western State unless the Federal lessee of the selected land
is making royalty payments to the United States from production of minerals,
oil, or gas, whereupon the particular leasehold interest shall remain
in the ownership of the United States until the leasehold interest terminates.
After that termination, the mineral, oil, and gas rights shall become
the property of the relevant Western State.
(2) SELECTION OF SURFACE RIGHTS- Western States may select only the surface
of eligible land if the land is located on subsurface mineral, oil, or
gas deposits that are generating royalty payments to the United States.
The entire mineral, oil, and gas estate shall become the property of the
Western State upon termination of the Federal lease.
(e) Permanent School Fund- All land selected by each of the Western States
shall be held in trust by a State educational agency empowered to sell or
lease such land, the proceeds of which shall be used as a permanent fund,
the interest of which shall be expended only for the support of public education.
(f) Definitions- In this Act:
(1) The term `Western States' means Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado,
Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington,
and Wyoming.
(2) The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary
of Agriculture, as appropriate.
(3) The term `State educational agency' means the agency of the State
primarily responsible for the supervision of education.
(4) The term `federally owned land' means all land held in the name of
the United States or any agency thereof, including land held in trust,
United States military reservations, Indian reservations, and any other
land used for Federal purposes.
(5) The term `unappropriated public lands' means any and all land under
the management and control of the Bureau of Land Management or United
States Forest Service, excluding land that is--
(B) located within a United States military reservation;
(C) a unit of the National Park System;
(E) a Wilderness Area designated by Congress; or
(F) a National Historic Site.
END
