Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 2.djvu/971

 PUBLIC LAW 106-393—OCT. 30, 2000 114 STAT. 1609 has decreased precipitously, so too have the revenues shared with the affected counties. (10) This decHne in shared revenues has affected educational funding and road maintenance for many counties. (11) In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, Congress recognized this trend and ameliorated its adverse consequences by providing an alternative annual safety net payment to 72 counties in Oregon, Washington, and northern California in which Federal timber sales had been restricted or prohibited by administrative and judicial decisions to protect the northern spotted owl. (12) The authority for these particular safety net payments is expiring and no comparable authority has been granted for alternative payments to counties elsewhere in the United States that have suffered similar losses in shared revenues from the Federal lands and in the funding for schools and roads those revenues provide. (13) There is a need to stabilize education and road maintenance funding through predictable payments to the affected counties, job creation in those counties, and other opportunities associated with restoration, maintenance, and stewardship of Federal lands. (14) Both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management face significant backlogs in infrastructure maintenance and ecosystem restoration that are difficult to address through annual appropriations. (15) There is a need to build new, and strengthen existing, relationships and to improve management of public lands and waters. (b) PURPOSES. —The purposes of this Act are as follows: , (1) To stabilize payments to counties to provide funding for schools and roads that supplements other available funds. (2) To make additional investments in, and create additional employment opportunities through, projects that improve the maintenance of existing infrastructure, implement stewardship objectives that enhance forest ecosystems, and restore and improve land health and water quality. Such projects shall enjoy broad-based support with objectives that may include, but are not limited to— (A) road, trail, and infrastructure maintenance or obliteration; (B) soil productivity improvement; (C) improvements in forest ecosystem health; (D) watershed restoration and maintenance; (E) restoration, maintenance and improvement of wildlife and fish habitat; (F) control of noxious and exotic weeds; and (G) restablishment of native species. (3) To improve cooperative relationships among the people that use and care for Federal lands and the agencies that manage these lands. SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 16 USC 500 note. In this Act: (1) FEDERAL LANDS. — The term "Federal lands" means— (A) lands within the National Forest System, as defined in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable

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