United States HR 1762: Forest Service Accountability Act

Bill Text

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119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 1762
To amend the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 to
provide that the President shall appoint, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, the Chief of the Forest Service.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 27, 2025
Mr. ZINKE (for himself, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Ms. LETLOW, Mr. CRANE, Mr. CAL-
VERT, Mr. GOODEN, Mr. BEGICH, Mr. HURD of Colorado, Mr. BAIRD,
Mr. MOYLAN, Mr. PFLUGER, and Mr. BAUMGARTNER) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Department of Agriculture Reorganization
Act of 1994 to provide that the President shall appoint,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the
Chief of the Forest Service.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Forest Service Ac-4
countability Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. CHIEF OF THE FOREST SERVICE. 1
Subtitle E of the Department of Agriculture Reorga-2
nization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6961) is amended by add-3
ing at the end the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 246. CHIEF OF THE FOREST SERVICE. 5
‘‘(a) APPOINTMENT BY THE PRESIDENT; SENATE 6
ADVICE AND CONSENT.—The President shall appoint, by 7
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the Chief 8
of the Forest Service. 9
‘‘(b) QUALIFICATIONS.—An individual appointed 10
under subsection (a) shall have substantial experience and 11
demonstrated competence in forest and natural resources 12
management. 13
‘‘(c) COMMITTEE REFERRAL.— 14
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any nomination of an indi-15
vidual to be the Chief of the Forest Service sub-16
mitted to the Senate for confirmation, and referred 17
to a committee, shall be referred jointly to the Com-18
mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of 19
the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Nat-20
ural Resources of the Senate. 21
‘‘(2) RULES OF SENATE.—Paragraph (1) is en-22
acted— 23
‘‘(A) as an exercise of the rulemaking 24
power of the Senate, and as such is deemed a 25
part of the rules of the Senate and supersedes 26
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other rules only to the extent that they are in-1
consistent with such rules; and 2
‘‘(B) with full recognition of the constitu-3
tional right of the Senate to change the rules 4
at any time, in the same manner, and to the 5
same extent as in the case of any other rule of 6
the Senate. 7
‘‘(d) APPLICATION TO INCUMBENT.—Notwith-8
standing any service by an individual serving in the posi-9
tion of Chief of the Forest Service on the date of enact-10
ment of this section, the President shall submit to the Sen-11
ate a nomination for an individual to be the Chief of the 12
Forest Service not later than 30 days after that date of 13
enactment.’’. 14
Æ
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