{
  "id": "R42452",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R42452",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 404808,
      "date": "2012-03-26",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T00:11:40.616664",
      "title": "Forest Service Payments to Counties\u2014Title I of the Federal Forests County Revenue, Schools, and Jobs Act of 2012: Issues for Congress",
      "summary": "Since 1908, the Forest Service (USFS) in the Department of Agriculture has paid 25% of its receipts to the states for use on roads and schools in the counties where the national forests are located. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Department of the Interior has paid 50% of its receipts to the Oregon counties where the revested (returned to federal ownership) Oregon and California Railroad (O&C) grant lands are located. Payments under these programs dropped substantially in the 1990s, largely because of declining timber sales. In the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-393; SRS), Congress created an optional alternative payment system for these lands, but the law expired at the end of FY2011.\nThe 112th Congress has considered options for addressing the lower payments from federal lands due to lower timber sales. One bill, H.R. 4019 (Title I, the County, Schools, and Revenue Trust for Federal Forest Land), would establish a new payment program; the House Committee on Natural Resources has ordered the bill reported. The bill would establish the trust with receipts from certain projects, and give the USFS the \u201cfiduciary responsibility\u201d to undertake projects to achieve annual revenue requirements in counties that do not opt out of the trust program. The bill would direct the USFS to calculate the revenue requirements and, to implement trust projects, establish procedures for public involvement, environmental reporting, and judicial review. The bill also would direct the allocation and use of the trust payments, and provide appropriations for the payments until trust projects generated receipts for the trust payments.\nH.R. 4019 raises several issues for Congress. One is that, although the trust program has been described as a replacement for the SRS, the payments would apparently be in addition to the USFS 25% and O&C 50% payments that had been replaced by the SRS. Also, the fiduciary responsibility for trust payments makes the counties the primary beneficiary of federal land management and could restrict the ability of individuals to challenge decisions that they feel could degrade the federal lands and resources. The annual revenue requirement\u201460% of average 1980-1999 gross receipts\u2014raises several questions: what would be included in \u201cgross receipts\u201d; what receipts could be deposited in the trust (e.g., whether deposits to other accounts could instead be deposited in the trust); how much additional revenue would be needed; and where those revenues could come from (e.g., how much additional timber might need to be cut, how many jobs might be created, where the timber could be cut, and what other options might be feasible, such as permits for currently free uses). Public involvement would be limited to written comments and objections to proposed and final trust decisions, filed before the required environmental report is prepared. The environmental report would not need to be made available, and could not be challenged in court or administratively. Trust project decisions would be presumed to be in accordance with several laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Forest Management Act. The 65% of trust project receipts that would be paid to the states would be a significant increase over the 25% USFS payments and the 50% O&C payments. The bill is unclear on the allocation among states; it could be based on historic receipts or on SRS payments, with substantially different results. There could also be numerous implementation issues, such as treatment of state education funding, inclusion of the O&C lands, forests with some counties opting out of the trust payments, existing federal timber sale requirements, the possible need for implementing regulations, and possible additional staffing and funding requirements.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
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  ],
  "topics": [
    "Appropriations",
    "Energy Policy",
    "Environmental Policy"
  ]
}