Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 2.djvu/986

 114 STAT. 1624 PUBLIC LAW 106-393 —OCT. 30, 2000 TITLE V—MINERAL REVENUE PAYMENTS CLARIFICATION Mineral Revenue Payments Clarification Act of2000. 30 USC 181 note. SEC. 501. SHORT TITLE. This title may be cited as the "Mineral Revenue Payments Clarification Act of 2000". 30 USC 191 note. SEC. 502. FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) Section 10201 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-66; 107 Stat. 407) amended section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191) to change the sharing of onshore mineral revenues and revenues from geothermal steam from a 50:50 split between the Federal Government and the States to a complicated formula that entailed deducting from the State share of leasing revenues "50 percent of the portion of the enacted appropriations of the Department of the Interior and any other agency during the preceding fiscal year allocable to the administration of all laws providing for the leasing of any onshore lands or interest in land owned by the United States for the production of the same types of minerals leasable under this Act or of geothermal steam, and to enforcement of such laws * * *". (2) There is no legislative record to suggest a sound public policy rationale for deducting prior-year administrative expenses from the sharing of current-year receipts, indicating that this change was made primarily for budget scoring reasons. (3) The system put in place by this change in law has proved difficult to administer and has given rise to disputes between the Federal Government and the States as to the nature of allocable expenses. Federal accounting systems have proven to be poorly suited to breaking down administrative costs in the manner required by the law. Different Federal agencies implementing this law have used varying methodologies to identify allocable costs, resulting in an inequitable distribution of costs during fiscal years 1994 through 1996. In November 1997, the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior found that "the congressionally approved method for cost sharing deductions effective in fiscal year 1997 may not accurately compute the deductions". (4) Given the lack of a substantive rationale for the 1993 change in law and the complexity and administrative burden involved, a return to the sharing formula prior to the enactment of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 is justified. SEC. 503. AMENDMENT OF THE MINERAL LEASING ACT. Section 35(b) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191(b)) is amended to read as follows: "(b) In determining the amount of payments to the States under this section, the amount of such payments shall not be reduced by any administrative or other costs incurred by the United States.".

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