(The data referred to follows:) [S. 1401, 90th Cong., first sess.] A BILL To amend title I of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) section 2 of title I of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "(d) OTHER REVENUES. -All revenues received on and after July 1, 1967, and prior to July 1, 1972, to the extent such revenues otherwise would be deposited in miscellaneous receipts of the United States Treasury, under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (41 Stat. 437; 30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), as amended (except revenues received from lands within naval petroleum reserves), and under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 (67 Stat. 462; 43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.), as amended (including the funds held in escrow under an interim agreement of October 12, 1956, between the United States and Louisiana, to the extent the United States is determined to be entitled to such escrow funds), and by or on account of the Forest Service which are disposed of pursuant to the provisions of law contained in section 499, title 16, United States Code." (b) Title I of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new section: "SEC. 8. Not to exceed $30,000,000 of the money authorized to be appropriated from the fund by section 3 of this Act may be obligated by contract during each of fiscal years 1968 and 1969 for the acquisition of lands, waters, or interests therein within areas specified in section 6(a) (1) of this Act. Any such contract may be executed by the head of the department concerned, within limitations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. Any such contract so entered into shall be deemed a contractual obligation of the United States and shall be liquidated with money appropriated from the fund specifically for liquidation of such contract obligation. No contract may be entered into for the acquisition of property pursuant to the section unless such acquisition is otherwise authorized by Federal law." SEC. 2. (a) With respect to any property acquired by the Secretary of the Interior within a unit of the national park system or miscellaneous area, the Secretary may convey a freehold or leasehold interest therein, subject to such terms and conditions as will assure the use of the property in a manner which is, in the judgment of the Secretary, consistent with the purpose for which the area was authorized by the Congress. In any case in which the Secretary exercises his discretion to convey such interest, he shall do so to the highest bidder, in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, but such conveyance shall be at not less than the fair market value of the interest, as determined by the Secretary; except that if any such conveyance is proposed within two years after the property to be conveyed is acquired by the Secretary, he shall allow the last owner of record of such property thirty days following the date on which he is notified by the Secretary in writing that such property is to be conveyed within which to notify the Secretary that such owner wishes to acquire such interest. Upon receiving such timely request, the Secretary shall convey such interest to such person upon payment by him of, or agreement by him to pay, an amount equal to the highest bid price. (b) Within a unit of the national park system or miscellaneous area in which exchange is authorized by law as a method for property acquisition, the Secretary may accept title to any non-Federal property or interest therein within such unit or area and in exchange therefor he may convey to the grantor of such property or interest any federally owned property or interest therein within any such unit or area, subject to such terms and conditions as he deems necessary. The values of the properties so exchanged either shall be approximately equal, or if they are not approximately equal, the values shall be equalized by the payment of cash to the grantor from funds appropriated for the acquisition of land for the area, or to the Secretary as the circumstances require. (c) The proceeds received from any conveyance under this section shall be credited to the land and water conservation fund in the Treasury of the United States. Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, D.C., February 5, 1968. Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. Senate. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In response to your request of April 4, 1967, here is our report on S. 1401, "To amend title I of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and for other purposes." S. 1401 would amend the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to provide for other sources of revenue and to authorize contract obligation of monies from the Fund for acquisition purposes. Revenues received during the period from July 1, 1967, to July 1, 1972, (1) from the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), as amended, (2) under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.), as amended, and (3) from the National Forests and disposed of pursuant to the provisions of 16 U.S.C. 499, would be deposited in the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the extent they would otherwise be deposited into the miscellaneous receipts. S. 1401 would also provide that for the fiscal years 1968 and 1969, the head of the Department concerned could execute contracts for the acquisition of lands, waters, and interests therein which would obligate monies authorized to be appropriated from the Fund. The aggregate amount of such obligations could not exceed $30,000,000 for each of the two fiscal years. The execution of such contracts would be subject to limitations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. Furthermore, such contracts could be entered into only with respect to acquisitions otherwise authorized by Federal law. We are, of course, aware of the fact that contract authorizations are normally not favored by the Appropriations Committees and the Bureau of the Budget, but that exceptions have been made. The availability of such authority would provide a desirable means of combating price escalation and of promptly supplying recreation land acquisition needs. We would expect to participate in the development of the limitations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior on the execution of the acquisition contracts if this authority is provided. Section 2 of S. 1401 would authorize the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to any property acquired by him within a unit of the National Park System or miscellaneous areas, to convey a freehold or leasehold interest therein. This section also includes further provisions governing such conveyances and exchanges of property or interests therein within the National Parks or miscellaneous areas in which exchanges are authorized. Proceeds from conveyances of freehold or leasehold interests or by exchange would be credited to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We are well aware of the existing backlog and urgency of recreation land acquisition in both Federal and State outdoor recreation programs. Action is needed quickly to provide adequate funds in the Land and Water Conservation Fund for prompt acquisition of lands to meet the growing demands for outdoor recreation and to avoid the increased costs and inhibiting effects of rapidly escalating land prices. The Department of the Interior, in its report to the Committee, has recommended several amendments to Section 1(a) of S. 1401. Those amendments would (1) set the level of funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $200 million annually for the next 5 years; (2) utilize a portion of the more than adequate receipts available under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, as amended; and (3) repeal the authorization in Section 4(b) of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act for advance appropriations to the Fund from the Treasury. Section 1(a) of S. 1401 would require that, along with revenues from other sources, National Forest receipts would be deposited in the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the extent they would otherwise be deposited into the miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury. With limited exceptions, 35 percent of the receipts from the sale of products and other users of the National Forests is shared with the counties in which the National Forests are situated, or otherwise disposed of for special purposes pursuant to existing law. We do not recommend further earmarking of National Forest receipts. We concur in Interior's recommendation that these receipts not be used to augment the fund. Other of Interior's recommended amendments will make it clear that the exchange provisions in Section 2(b) apply only to areas and lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior. This should be done. The Bureau of the Budget advises that there is no objection to the presentation of this report and that enactment of S. 1401, if amended as recommended in the Interior report, would be consistent with the administration's objectives. Sincerely yours, Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, ORVILLE L. FREEMAN, Secretary. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This responds to your request for the views of the Bureau of the Budget concerning S. 1401, "To amend Title I of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and for other purposes." In the report which the Department of the Interior is submitting to your committee on this bill, the Department recommends that it be amended in a number of respects. The most important of these amendments would authorize, for the next five years, deposits to the Land and Water Conservation Fund from outer continental shelf oil receipts in such amounts as would yield, when added to current revenue sources, an annual input of revenue to the fund of $200 million. If amended in the manner recommended in the Department's report, the enactment of S. 1401 would be consistent with the Administration's objectives. As noted in the Department's report, current budgetary constraints will likely preclude for the present, appropriations requests at the $200 million level. Sincerely, Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, PHILLIP S. HUGHES, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D.C., January 4, 1968. Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR JACKSON: This responds to your request for a report from this Department on S. 1401, a bill "To amend title I of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and for other purposes." We strongly recommend the enactment of S. 1401, with the amendments indicated below. The principal purpose of the bill is to help overcome the problem of the rapidly increasing cost of Federal and federally assisted park and recreation areas financed from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This Fund was created in 1965 primarily to assist States and Federal agencies in acquiring and developing outdoor recreation lands and waters to meet the needs of the American people. The problem of land price escalation for public park and recreation areas has been of increasing concern over the past few years to the executive and legislative branches of the Federal Government, State and local governments, conservation and recreation organizations, and the general public. The President, in his message of January 30, 1967, to the Congress on Protecting our Natural Heritage stated as follows: "We are seriously hampered by rapidly rising land costs when we seek new areas for recreation. Average land prices are increasing at a rate of almost ten percent a year. The cost of land for recreation is spiraling at a considerably higher rate. This diminishes the effectiveness of our program of State grants and Federal purchases of land for parks and recreation areas. We must act promptly to assure that we can acquire needed recreation lands before the price becomes prohibitive. The most effective means of controlling the increase in the price of land is to acquire the lands quickly after authorization by the Congress." The Senate and House Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs and Appropriations have also expressed concern over the spiraling costs of acquiring park and recreation area lands throughout the Nation, and have recognized the need for rapid acquisition of property in authorized areas in order to help reduce the effect of price escalation. In January of this year, the Department of the Interior released a report, "Recreation Land Price Escalation," which includes several recommendations and details a proposed 10-year program. Copies of this report were supplied the Senate and House Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs at the time of its release. The two main problems are: (1) the need to have an adequate amount of funds to purchase park and recreation lands and waters before they are priced out of reach or committed irretrievably to other uses, and (2) the need to acquire property as quickly as possible after congressional or State authorization of park and recreation areas. S. 1401 will do three principal things to meet these problems: (1) it will add for a limited time additional sources of revenue to the Land and Water Conservation Fund for Federal and State property acquisition; (2) authorize the head of the department concerned to contract, under certain restrictions, for the acquisition of property within authorized areas in advance of the actual appropriation of moneys from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for such acquisition; and (3) authorize a lease-back and sell-back land management program for the property acquired for the National Park System under which the moneys received from the lease and sell-back transactions would be credited to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, thereby lessening the burden imposed on the Fund by the initial property acquisition. Section 1(a) of S. 1401 adds to the Land and Water Conservation Fund the following revenues received on and after July 1, 1967, and prior to July 1, 1972: (1) the unearmarked receipts under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (except revenues from lands within naval petroleum reserves); (2) the receipts under Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 (including the funds held in escrow under an interim agreement of October 12, 1956, between the United States and Louisiana, to the extent the United States is determined to be entitled to such escrow funds); and (3) unearmarked receipts from the national forests to the extent all such revenues otherwise would be deposited in miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury. The 89th Congress authorized 23 new Federal recreation areas involving the acquisition of about 250,000 acres at an estimated cost of $119 million. Among the outstanding of these are the following: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore; Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area in California; Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia; Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan; Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas: Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina; Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area in West Virginia; and Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area in Virginia. Some further significant additions were recommended by the President in his January 30, 1967, message to the Congress. These included a Redwood National Park in northern California, a national park and recreation area in the North Cascades area of Washington, a Potomac Valley Park in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, an Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin, and several national parks and recreation areas previously proposed. He also renewed his recommendation for a national scenic rivers system and a nationwide system of trails. The appropriation authorizations in existing laws for the acquisition of property for the National Park System, for which funds have not yet been appropriated from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, total $89 million. In addition, it is estimated that increases in existing statutory appropriation authorizations, and appropriations for areas where there are no statutory limitations on the amount authorized to be appropriated, will bring the amount needed for existing areas to about $318 million. Furthermore, appropriation authorizations for new areas will create additional fund needs. Our current best estimate of the acquisition costs for those new areas for which we are supporting authorizing legislation now pending before the 90th Congress is about $160 million. The Department of the Interior last January in its land price escalation report estimated total Federal and State needs under the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the next 10 years at about $3.6 billion and estimated revenues at $987 1 This figure does not include any amount above the present authorization ceiling for land acquisition for the Point Reyes National Seashore. million. On a 5-year projection those figures would be $1.5 billion and $460 million, respectively. Considering the needs for recreation lands and water, and other demands on our national budget for defense and domestic programs, the Administration recommends that a level of financing for the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the next 5 years be established at $200 million annually, which is a total of $1 billion. Estimated revenues for the 5-year period are $460 million, which means that about $540 million would need to be found from additional sources. In addition, the Administration believes appropriations from the Land and Water Conservation Fund should be divided equally between eligible Federal agencies and the several States. We recommend, therefore, that section 1(a) of S. 1401 be amended (1) to provide a level of funding for the next 5 years for the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $200 million annually; (2) to provide the moneys necessary to reach such level of funding from revenues under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, as amended; and (3) to repeal the provision in section 4(b) of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act which authorizes advance appropriations to the Fund from the Treasury. The table attached to this report summarizes the actual experience of the Land and Water Conservation Fund for Fiscal Years 1965-1967 and expected experience in Fiscal Year 1968. It is significant that revenues to the Fund from existing sources have underrun appropriations from the Fund by substantial amounts in the past 2 years. It will not be necessary under the Administration's proposal to utilize unearmarked receipts under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 or such receipts from the national forests. In order to meet the recommended level for the Land and Water Conservation Fund only about $100 million of the much greater receipts available under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, as amended, will be needed annually. To carry out the above recommendations, we offer the following amendments to section 1 (a) of S. 1401: 1. On page 1, line 7, delete "1967" and "1972" and substitute "1968" and "1973", respectively, to accord with the probable date of enactment of the bill. 2. On page 1, line 9, after the comma delete all that follows through "and" on line 2, page 2. This deletes the reference to the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. 3. On page 2, line 8, after the comma delete all that follows to the period on line 10, and substitute the following "but not to exceed annually an amount equivalent to the difference, to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior, between $200 million and the total revenues and collections estimated to be covered into the fund pursuant to subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section". This deletes the reference to national forest receipts, and imposes a $200 million annual limitation. Under the amendment the Secretary of the Interior will estimate the amount of revenues which will be covered into the Fund from existing sources and the amount of Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act receipts that will be needed to reach the $200 million annual level. The Outer Continental Shelf revenues will be credited to the Fund as they accrue. In connection with the foregoing recommendation, however, it should be understood that current budgetary constraints are likely to preclude, for the present, appropriation requests at the $200 million level. 4. On page 2, line 11, change "(b)" to "(c)" and insert before that subsection the following new subsection: "(b) The first sentence of section 4(b) of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 is amended by deleting for a total of eight years' and substituting 'until the end of fiscal year 1969." This will terminate the authority for advance appropriations to the Fund on June 30, 1969. The $200 million level of financing for 5 years will make unnecessary a continuation of the advance appropriations authority after that date. We plan to place much greater emphasis on the matter of priorities in recommending the establishment of new Federal recreational areas and funding those already authorized. In the main, this will involve the restriction of recommendations for new areas to those which can be funded within a reasonable period of time from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, augumented as recommended in this report. Such an approach is consonant with our current budgetary situa |