Appropriations bill FY97, Interior

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Department of the Interior

Title II: Related Agencies

Title III: General Provisions

Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997 - Title I: Department of the Interior - Makes appropriations for the FY 1997 operation of the Department of the Interior, setting forth uses and limitations.

Prohibits the National Park Service from spending any funds under this Act for activities in direct response to the United Nations Biodiversity Initiative in the United States.

Authorizes the National Park Service (NPS) to transfer NPS funds to State, local, and tribal governments, other public entities, educational institutions, and private nonprofit organizations to carry out NPS programs.

Provides certain funds for closure of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, including payments for workers compensation and unemployment compensation for former Bureau employees.

Sets forth uses and prohibitions on the use of funds under this title.

(Sec. 114) Establishes in the Treasury a franchise fund pilot for capitalizing and operating central administrative services.

(Sec. 115) Allows the State of Washington, upon appropriation of a specified amount for the Federal Government to acquire the Elwha and Glines dams, and upon submission to Congress by the State of a binding agreement to remove them within a reasonable period of time, to purchase such dams from the Federal Government for $2. Repeals the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act upon purchase of the dams by the State.

(Sec. 116) Extends, for one year, the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission (Massachusetts and Rhode Island).

(Sec. 117) Designates and ratifies assignment to the University of Utah as successor to, and beneficiary of, all the existing assets, revenues, funds and rights granted to the State of Utah under the Miners Hospital Grant and the School of Mines Grant. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to accept relinquishment of all remaining and unconveyed entitlement for quantity grants owed the State of Utah for the Miners Hospital Grant and any unconveyed entitlement that may remain for the University of Utah School of Mines Grant.

(Sec. 118) Directs the Secretary of the Interior, upon negotiation with a committee of Federal and tribal representatives and with certain other Federal officials, to propose to specified congressional committees a formula to distribute certain Indian programs funds in direct payments to Indian tribes, except those in Alaska, identifying the funds set aside to provide services to Indians in Alaska. Sets forth approval procedures.

Amends the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act to increase from 20 to 50 the number of new tribes per year which the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Office of Self-Governance, may select from an applicant pool to participate in self-governance.

(Sec. 119) Allows the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to carry out specified revenue-generating activities, including charging museum admission fees, if such revenue is covered into a designated special fund.

(Sec. 120) Directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to transfer: (1) to Lander County, Nevada, title to the former BLM administrative site and associated buildings in Battle Mountain, Nevada; and (2) to the State of Nevada, title to the surplus BLM District Office building in Winnemucca, Nevada.

(Sec. 121) Recognizes Cook Inlet Region, Inc., an Alaskan Native regional corporation, as an Indian tribal entity.

(Sec. 122) Directs the Secretary of the Interior to transfer a certain Grumman Goose aircraft to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage, Alaska.

(Sec. 123) Amends the Mesquite Lands Act of 1988 to require the City of Mesquite, Nevada, to notify the Secretary of the Interior, within a specified period, as to which of specified public lands it wishes to purchase.

Father Aull Site Transfer Act of 1996 - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to convey without consideration certain land near Silver City, New Mexico, to St. Vincent DePaul Parish.

Title II: Related Agencies - Makes appropriations for FY 1997 to the Department of Agriculture for the Forest Service, including additional amounts for emergency rehabilitation, presuppression due to emergencies, and wildfire suppression activities.

Prohibits the use of funds to implement any reorganization or "reinvention" of the Forest Service, without the consent of the congressional appropriations committees, other than the relocation of a specified regional office from San Francisco to excess military property at Mare Island, Vallejo, California.

Prohibits the use of funds to implement the Tongass Land Management Plan revision until the General Accounting Office certifies that the process to develop such plan complies with specified Federal laws.

Makes appropriations for FY 1997 to the Department of Energy (DOE) for fossil energy research and development, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), and the SPR Account, and other activities.

Rescinds a specified amount of funds for clean coal technology, making them available for any ongoing DOE project.

Directs the Secretary of Energy to sell a specified dollar amount of oil in FY 1997 from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and deposit the proceeds in an SPR Operating Fund.

Makes appropriations for FY 1997 to the Department of Health and Human Services for the Indian Health Service for services and facilities.

Appropriates funds for FY 1997 to: (1) the Department of Education for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education for Indian Education; (2) the Office of Navajo and Hopi Relocation; (3) the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development; (4) the Smithsonian Institution; (5) the National Gallery of Art; (6) the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and (7) the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Makes FY 1997 appropriations for: (1) the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities; (2) the Institute of Museum Services; (3) the Commission of Fine Arts; (4) the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; (5) the National Capital Planning Commission; (6) the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission; and (7) the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Sets forth uses and prohibitions on funds under this title.

Title III: General Provisions - Sets forth uses and limitations of funds appropriated by this Act.

(Sec. 307) Requires expenditures under this Act to comply with the Buy American Act. Expresses the sense of the Congress that entities receiving Federal assistance should purchase only American-made equipment and products. Prohibits Federal contracts with persons found to have falsely labeled a product with a "Made in America" inscription.

(Sec. 312) Permits the use of funds from this Act for the AmeriCorps program, subject to availability of funds under the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies FY 1997 appropriations bill, and only if the relevant agencies follow appropriate reprogramming guidelines.

(Sec. 316) Places limitations on the type of grant awards that can be made by the National Endowment for the Arts.

(Sec. 317) Authorizes U.S. Forest Service approval of Alternative site 2 (ALT 2), issued on December 6, 1993, and deems it permissible under the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act of 1988.

(Sec. 318) Prohibits the use of funds for final regulations, rules, or policies under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to assert jurisdiction, management, or control over navigable waters transferred to Alaska under the Submerged Lands Act of 1953 or the Alaska Statehood Act of 1959.

(Sec. 319) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act to review or modify sourcing areas previously approved under specified provisions of the Forest Resources Conservation and Shortage Relief Act of 1990 or to enforce or implement specified Federal regulations. Prohibits adoption of policies that would restrain domestic transportation or processing of timber from private lands or impose additional accountability requirements on any timber.

(Sec. 320) Extends through FY 1999 the authority to collect recreation fees under the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, and through FY 2002 the availability in accounts of the fees collected.

(Sec. 321) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act for any activity in connection with a scenic shoreline drive in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan.

(Sec. 322) Transfers specified land, including the Bend Silviculture Lab, to the Central Oregon Community College, Bend, Oregon.

(Sec. 323) Prohibits the use of any funds for activities of the Office of Forestry and Economic Assistance, or any successor office.

(Sec. 324) Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) accept title to specified land in Prince Georges County, Maryland, adjacent to Oxon Cove Park, on condition that it has not become contaminated with hazardous substances; and (2) in exchange, convey to the Corrections Corporation of America specified land located in Oxon Cove Park in the District of Columbia.

(Sec. 325) Prohibits the obligation of any funds provided to the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, or Forest Service for the costs of employee relocation or transfer of duty at a level that exceeds 90 percent of the average amounts spent for this purpose in FY 1994 and 1995.

(Sec. 326) Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to exchange certain National Forest lands (including a wastewater treatment facility) in Chelan County, Washington, for certain lands owned by Public Utility District No. 1 of Chelan County, Washington.

Snoqualmie National Forest Boundary Adjustment Act of 1996 - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to modify the boundary of the Snoqualmie National Forest to include specified adjacent lands in Washington State.

Sugarbush Land Exchange Act of 1996 - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to provide for conveyance to Sugarbush Resort Holdings, Inc. of certain land in the Green Mountain National Forest, in exchange for cash or other land, proceeds from the sale of which shall become part of such National Forest.