United States S 297: A bill to amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to authorize certain construction activities on public lands, and for other purposes.

Bill Text

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118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 297
To amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to authorize
certain construction activities on public lands, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 7, 2023
Mr. SANDERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
of 1976 to authorize certain construction activities on
public lands, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. NURSERIES. 3
Title VI of the Federal Land Policy and Management 4
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1781 et seq.) is amended by add-5
ing at the end the following: 6
‘‘SEC. 604. NURSERIES. 7
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Using funds made available 8
under section 40804(b)(8) of the Infrastructure Invest-9
ment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592a(b)(8))— 10
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‘‘(1) the Secretary shall carry out a pilot pro-1
gram to establish and operate nurseries on public 2
lands and other Federal land under the jurisdiction 3
of the Secretary; and 4
‘‘(2) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 5
through the Chief of the Forest Service, shall carry 6
out a pilot program to establish and operate nurs-7
eries on National Forest System land. 8
‘‘(b) LOCATIONS.— 9
‘‘(1) DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.—The 10
Secretary shall carry out the pilot program estab-11
lished under subsection (a)(1) in— 12
‘‘(A) 4 of the eleven contiguous Western 13
States; and 14
‘‘(B) 1 State that is not 1 of the eleven 15
contiguous Western States. 16
‘‘(2) FOREST SERVICE.—The Secretary of Agri-17
culture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Serv-18
ice, shall carry out the pilot program established 19
under subsection (a)(2) in— 20
‘‘(A) 4 of the eleven contiguous Western 21
States; and 22
‘‘(B) 1 State, including the State of 23
Vermont, that is not 1 of the eleven contiguous 24
Western States. 25
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‘‘(c) ACTIVITIES.— 1
‘‘(1) DEFINITION OF SECRETARY CON-2
CERNED.—In this subsection, the term ‘Secretary 3
concerned’ means— 4
‘‘(A) the Secretary, with respect to public 5
lands and other Federal land under the juris-6
diction of the Secretary; and 7
‘‘(B) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 8
through the Chief of the Forest Service, with 9
respect to National Forest System land. 10
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATIONS.—In carrying out a pilot 11
program established under subsection (a), the Sec-12
retary concerned may— 13
‘‘(A) establish a tree nursery on Federal 14
land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary 15
concerned, and develop the infrastructure nec-16
essary to support that nursery, to address Fed-17
eral and regional conservation tree planting 18
needs, consistent with the Bureau of Land 19
Management National Seed Strategy; 20
‘‘(B) purchase necessary equipment and 21
machinery and construct the necessary facilities 22
on Federal land under the jurisdiction of the 23
Secretary concerned to store material, equip-24
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ment, and machinery authorized under this sec-1
tion; 2
‘‘(C) enter into cooperative agreements 3
with non-Federal entities to use trees produced 4
in nurseries established under the pilot pro-5
gram; 6
‘‘(D) conduct necessary research on graz-7
ing and forest management on Federal land 8
under the jurisdiction of the Secretary con-9
cerned, ensuring the long-term sustainability of 10
such grazing and forest management, to maxi-11
mize the ability— 12
‘‘(i) to sequester carbon; 13
‘‘(ii) to prevent soil erosion; and 14
‘‘(iii) to improve air and water qual-15
ity; and 16
‘‘(E) hire and train personnel to carry out 17
the activities described in this section.’’. 18
Æ
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