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PUBLIC LAW 98-478—OCT. 16, 1984

98 STAT. 2213

Public Law 98-478 98th Congress An Act Entitled the "Federal Timber Contract Payment Modification Act".

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Federal Timber Contract Payment Modification Act". SEC. 2. (a)(1) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, in order to retain jobs, to preserve free competition, to utilize the potential productive capacity of plants, to preserve small communities dependent on a single economic sector to assure an open and competitive market for future sales of Government timber, and to lessen the impact of unemployment, the Secretary of Agriculture for national forest lands and the Secretary of the Interior for public lands under their respective jurisdictions are authorized and directed to permit a requesting purchaser to return to the Government a volume of the purchaser's timber contracts as determined under paragraph (2) upon payment of a buy-out charge from such purchaser in an amount as determined under paragraph (3). The purchaser shall be released from further obligation to cut, remove, and pay for timber under such contract upon payment, or arrangement for payment as provided under paragraph (3)(E), of such buy-out charge and completion of any obligation required pursuant to subsection (4)(B). The Government does not hereby surrender any other claim against a purchaser which arose under a contract prior to effectuation of this release and not in connection with this release from obligation to cut, harvest and pay for timber. (2)(A) To qualify for buy-out under this section, a timber sales contract must have been bid prior to January 1, 1982, for an original contract period of 10 years or less, and be held as of June 1, 1984: Provided, That any such contract that was defaulted after January 1, 1981 may qualify for buy-out under this section so long as (i) settlement for damages has not been reached between the purchaser and the United States; and (ii) the purchaser's loss on all of its qualifying timber sales contracts, as determined in section 2(a)(3)(A) of this Act, is in excess of 50 per centum of the net book worth of the purchaser. A contract is qualified for buy-out notwithstanding the fact that it was reformed after October 1, 1983, pursuant to Bureau of Land Management Instructional Memorandum 83-743 or is included in a Forest Service multisale plan pursuant to the President's program of July 28, 1983. (B) A purchaser holding more than twenty-seven million three hundred thousand board feet of net merchantable sawtimber as of January 1, 1982, in qualifying contracts as provided in (A) shall be entitled to buy out up to 55 per centum of such timber volume up to a maximum of two hundred million board feet. (C) A purchaser holding twenty-seven million three hundred thousand or less board feet of net merchantable sawtimber as of January 1, 1982, in qualifying contracts as provided in (A) shall be

Oct. 16, 1984 [H.R. 2838] ' Federal Timber Contract Payment Modification Act. 16 USC 618 note. Forests and forest products. 16 USC 618.

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