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(c) USE OF RETAINED AMOUNTS.--Amounts deposited pursuant to subsection (b) shall be available, without further appropriation, for expenditure by the Secretary of Agriculture to cover costs incurred by the Forest Service for the processing of applications for special use authorizations and for monitoring activities undertaken in connection with such authorizations. Amounts in the special account shall remain available for such purposes until expended.
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(d) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.--In the budget justification documents submitted by the Secretary of Agriculture in support of the President's budget for a fiscal year under section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, the Secretary shall include a description of the purposes for which amounts were expended from the special account during the preceding fiscal year, including the amounts expended for each purpose, and a description of the purposes for which amounts are proposed to be expended from the special account during the next fiscal year, including the amounts proposed to be expended for each purpose.
(e) DEFINITION OF AUTHORIZATION.--For purposes of this section, the term ``authorizations'' means special use authorizations issued under subpart B of part 251 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations.
(f ) IMPLEMENTATION.--This section shall take effect upon promulgation of Forest Service regulations for the collection of fees for processing of special use authorizations and for related monitoring activities.
SEC. 332. HARDWOOD TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND APPLIED RESEARCH. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter the ``Secretary'') is hereby and hereafter authorized to conduct technology transfer and development, training, dissemination of information and applied research in the management, processing and utilization of the hardwood forest resource. This authority is in addition to any other authorities which may be available to the Secretary including, but not limited to, the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, as amended (16 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.), and the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Act of 1978, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1600-1614).
(b) In carrying out this authority, the Secretary may enter into grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements with public and private agencies, organizations, corporations, institutions and individuals. The Secretary may accept gifts and donations pursuant to the Act of October 10, 1978 (7 U.S.C. 2269) including gifts and donations from a donor that conducts business with any agency of the Department of Agriculture or is regulated by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(c) The Secretary is hereby and hereafter authorized to operate and utilize the assets of the Wood Education and Resource Center (previously named the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technology Center in West Virginia) as part of a newly formed ``Institute of Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research'' (hereinafter the ``Institute''). The Institute, in addition to the Wood Education and Resource Center, will consist of a Director, technology transfer specialists from State and Private Forestry, the Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Princeton, West Virginia, and any other organizational unit of the Department of Agriculture as the Secretary deems appropriate. The overall management of the Institute will be the responsibility of the Forest Service, State and Private Forestry.
(d) The Secretary is hereby and hereafter authorized to generate revenue using the authorities provided herein. Any revenue received as part of the operation of the Institute shall be deposited into a special fund in the Treasury of the United States, known as the ``Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research Fund'', which shall be available to the Secretary until expended, without further appropriation, in furtherance of the purposes of this section, including upkeep, management, and operation of the Institute and the payment of salaries and expenses.
(e) There are hereby and hereafter authorized to be appropriated such sums as necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.
SEC. 333. No timber sale in Region 10 shall be advertised if the indicated rate is deficit when appraised under the transaction evidence appraisal system using domestic Alaska values for western red cedar: Provided, That sales which are deficit when appraised under the transaction evidence appraisal system using domestic Alaska values for western red cedar may be advertised upon receipt of a written request by a prospective, informed bidder, who has the opportunity to review the Forest Service's cruise and harvest cost estimate for that timber. Program accomplishments shall be based on volume sold. Should Region 10 sell, in fiscal year 2000, the annual average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass Land Management Plan in sales which are not deficit when appraised under the transaction evidence appraisal system using domestic Alaska values for western red cedar, all of the western red cedar timber from those sales which is surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska, shall be made available to domestic processors in the contiguous 48 United States at prevailing domestic prices. Should Region 10 sell, in fiscal year 2000, less than the annual average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass Land Management Plan in sales which are not deficit when appraised under the transaction evidence appraisal system using domestic Alaska values for western red cedar, the volume of western red cedar timber available to domestic processors at prevailing domestic prices in the contiguous 48 United States shall be that volume: (i) which is surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska; and (ii) is that percent of the surplus western red cedar volume determined by calculating the ratio of the total timber volume which has been sold on the Tongass to the annual average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass Land Management Plan. The percentage shall be calculated by Region 10 on a rolling basis as each sale is sold (for purposes of this amendment, a ``rolling basis'' shall mean that the determination of how much western red cedar is eligible for sale to various markets shall be made at the time each sale is awarded). Western red cedar shall be deemed ``surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska'' when the timber sale holder has presented to the Forest Service documentation of the inability to sell western red cedar logs from a given sale to domestic Alaska processors at price equal to or greater than the log selling value stated in the contract. All additional western red cedar volume not sold to Alaska or contiguous 48 United States domestic processors may be exported to foreign markets at the election of the timber sale holder. All Alaska yellow cedar may be sold at prevailing export prices at the election of the timber sale holder.
SEC. 334. Subsection 104(d) of Public Law 104-333 (110 Stat. 4102) is amended--
(a) in paragraph (3) by striking ``after determining that the projects to be funded from the proceeds thereof are creditworthy and that a repayment schedule is established and only'' and inserting ``including a review of the creditworthiness of the loan and establishment of a repayment schedule,'' after ``and subject to such terms and conditions,''; and
(b) in paragraph (4) by inserting ``paragraph (3) of'' before ``this subsection''.
SEC. 335. The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall:
(1) prepare the report required of them by section 323(a) of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998 (Public Law 105-83; 111 Stat. 1543, 1596-7) except that the report describing the estimated production of goods and services for the first 5 years during the course of the decision may be completed for either each individual unit of Federal lands or for each of the Resource Advisory Council or Provincial Advisory Council units that fall within the Basin area;
(2) distribute the report and make such report available for public comment for a minimum of 120 days; and
(3) include detailed responses to the public comment in any final environmental impact statement associated with the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.
SEC. 336. None of the funds appropriated by this Act shall be used to propose or issue rules, regulations, decrees, or orders for the purpose of implementation, or in preparation for implementation, of the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted on December 11, 1997, in Kyoto, Japan at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has not been submitted to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification pursuant to article II, section 2, clause 2, of the United States Constitution, and which has not entered into force pursuant to article 25 of the Protocol.
SEC. 337. (a) MILLSITES OPINION .--No funds shall be expended by the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture, for fiscal years 2000 and 2001, to limit the number or acreage of millsites based on th e ratio between the number or acreage of millsites and the num ber or acreage of associated lode or placer claims with respect to any patent application grandfathered pursuant to section 113 of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, Appropriations Act, 1995; any operation for which a plan of operations has been previously approved; or any operation for which a plan of operations has been submitted to the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service prior to November 7, 1997.
(b) NO RATIFICATION.--Nothing in this Act or the Emergency Supplemental Act of 1999 shall be construed as an explicit or tacit adoption, ratification, endorsement, approval, rejection or disapproval of the opinion dated November 7, 1997, by the solicitor of the Department of the Interior concerning millsites.
SEC. 338. The Forest Service, in consultation with the Department of Labor, shall review Forest Service campground concessions policy to determine if modifications can be made to Forest Service contracts for campgrounds so that such concessions fall within the regulatory exemption of 29 CFR 4.122(b). The Forest Service shall offer in fiscal year 2000 such concession prospectuses under the regulatory exemption, except that, any prospectus that does not meet the requirements of the regulatory exemption shall be offered as a service contract in accordance with the requirements of 41 U.S.C. 351-358.
SEC. 339. PILOT PROGRAM OF CHARGES AND FEES FOR HARVEST OF FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCTS. (a) DEFINITION OF FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCT.--For purposes of this section, the term ``forest botanical product'' means any naturally occurring mushrooms, fungi, flowers, seeds, roots, bark, leaves, and other vegetation (or portion thereof ) that grow on National Forest System lands. The term does not include trees, except as provided in regulations issued under this section by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(b) RECOVERY OF FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR PRODUCTS.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall develop and implement a pilot program to charge and collect not less than the fair market value for forest botanical products harvested on National Forest System lands. The Secretary shall establish appraisal methods and bidding procedures to ensure that the amounts collected for forest botanical products are not less than fair market value.
(c) FEES.--
(1) IMPOSITION AND COLLECTION.--Under the pilot program, the Secretary of Agriculture shall also charge and collect fees from persons who harvest forest botanical products on National Forest System lands to recover all costs to the Department of Agriculture associated with the granting, modifying, or monitoring the authorization for harvest of the forest botanical products, including the costs of any environmental or other analysis.
(2) SECURITY.--The Secretary may require a person assessed a fee under this subsection to
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(d) SUSTAINABLE HARVEST LEVELS FOR FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCTS.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall conduct appropriate analyses to determine whether and how the harvest of forest botanical products on National Forest System lands can be conducted on a sustainable basis. The Secretary may not permit under the pilot program the harvest of forest botanical products at levels in excess of sustainable harvest levels, as defined pursuant to the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 (16 U.S.C. 528 et seq.). The Secretary shall establish procedures and timeframes to monitor and revise the harvest levels established for forest botanical products.
(e) WAIVER AUTHORITY.--
(1) PERSONAL USE.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish a personal use harvest level for each forest botanical product, and the harvest of a forest botanical product below that level by a person for personal use shall not be subject to charges and fees under subsections (b) and (c).
(2) OTHER EXCEPTIONS.--The Secretary may also waive the application of subsection (b) or (c) pursuant to such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe.
(f ) DEPOSIT AND USE OF FUNDS.--
(1) DEPOSIT.--Funds collected under the pilot program in accordance with subsections (b) and (c) shall be deposited into a special account in the Treasury of the United States.
(2) FUNDS AVAILABLE.--Funds deposited into the special account in accordance with paragraph (1) in excess of the amounts collected for forest botanical products during fiscal year 1999 shall be available for expenditure by the Secretary of Agriculture under paragraph (3) without further appropriation, and shall remain available for expenditure until the date specified in subsection (h)(2).
(3) AUTHORIZED USES.--The funds made available under paragraph (2) shall be expended at units of the National Forest System in proportion to the charges and fees collected at that unit under the pilot program to pay for--
(A) in the case of funds collected under subsection (b), the costs of conducting inventories of forest botanical products, determining sustainable levels of harvest, monitoring and assessing the impacts of harvest levels and methods, and for restoration activities, including any necessary vegetation; and
(B) in the case of fees collected under subsection (c), the costs described in paragraph (1) of such subsection.
(4) TREATMENT OF FEES.--Funds collected under subsections (b) and (c) shall not be taken into account for the purposes of the following laws:
(A) The sixth paragraph under the heading ``FOREST SERVICE'' in the Act of May 23, 1908 (16 U.S.C. 500) and section 13 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (commonly known as the Weeks Act; 16 U.S.C. 500).
(B) The fourteenth paragraph under the heading ``FOREST SERVICE'' in the Act of March 4, 1913 (16 U.S.C. 501).
(C) Section 33 of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (7 U.S.C. 1012).
(D) The Act of August 8, 1937, and the Act of May 24, 1939 (43 U.S.C. 1181a et seq.).
(E) Section 6 of the Act of June 14, 1926 (commonly known as the Recreation and Public Purposes Act; 43 U.S.C. 869-4).
(F) Chapter 69 of title 31, United States Code.
(G) Section 401 of the Act of June 15, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 715s).
(H) Section 4 of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 (16 U.S.C. 460l-6a).
(I) Any other provision of law relating to revenue allocation.
(g) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.--As soon as practicable after the end of each fiscal year in which the Secretary of Agriculture collects charges and fees under subsections (b) and (c) or expends funds from the special account under subsection (f ), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress a report summarizing the activities of the Secretary under the pilot program, including the funds generated under subsections (b) and (c), the expenses incurred to carry out the pilot program, and the expenditures made from the special account during that fiscal year.
(h) DURATION OF PILOT PROGRAM.--
(1) CHARGES AND FEES.--The Secretary of Agriculture may collect charges and fees under the authority of subsections (b) and (c) only during fiscal years 2000 through 2004.
(2) USE OF SPECIAL ACCOUNT.--The Secretary may make expenditures from the special account under subsection (f ) until September 30 of the fiscal year following the last fiscal year specified in paragraph (1). After that date, amounts remaining in the special account shall be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury.
SEC. 340. Title III, section 3001 of Public Law 106-31 is amended by inserting after ``Alabama,'' the following: ``in fiscal year 1999 or 2000''.
SEC. 341. Section 347 of title III of section 101(e) of division A of Public Law 105-277 is hereby amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) by inserting ``, via agreement or contract as appropriate,'' before ``may enter into''; and
(B) by striking ``(28) contracts with private persons and'' and inserting ``(28) stewardship contracting demonstration pilot projects with private persons or other public or private'';
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ``contract'' and inserting ``project'';
(3) in subsection (c)--
(A) in the heading, by inserting ``Agreements or'' before ``Contracts'';
(B) in paragraph (1)--
(i) by striking ``a contract'' and inserting ``an agreement or contract''; and
(ii) by striking ``private contracts'' and inserting ``private agreements or contracts'';
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ``agreement or'' before ``contracts''; and
(D) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``agreement or'' before ``contracts'';
(4) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``a contract'' and inserting ``an agreement or contract''; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``a contract'' and inserting ``an agreement or contract''; and
(5) in subsection (g)--
(A) in the first sentence by striking ``contract'' and inserting ``pilot project''; and
(B) in the last sentence--
(i) by inserting ``agreements or'' before ``contracts''; and
(ii) by inserting ``agreements or'' before ``contract''.
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