Ski Area Fee Retention Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2509 To amend the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996 to provide for the establishment of a Ski Area Fee Retention Account. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 2, 2019 Mr. TIPTON (for himself, Mr. COOK, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. GOSAR, Ms. PIN- GREE, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. AMODEI, Mr. SCHRADER, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, and Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire) in- troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agri- culture, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com- mittee concerned A BILL To amend the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Manage- ment Act of 1996 to provide for the establishment of a Ski Area Fee Retention Account. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ski Area Fee Reten- 4 tion Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2509 IH SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF SKI AREA FEE RETENTION AC- 1 COUNT. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 701 of division I of the 3 Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 4 1996 (16 U.S.C. 497c) is amended by adding at the end 5 the following: 6 ‘‘(k) SKI AREA FEE RETENTION ACCOUNT.— 7 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 8 ‘‘(A) ACCOUNT.—The term ‘Account’ 9 means the Ski Area Fee Retention Account es- 10 tablished under paragraph (2). 11 ‘‘(B) COVERED UNIT.—The term ‘covered 12 unit’ means a national forest that collects a 13 rental charge under this section. 14 ‘‘(C) REGION.—The term ‘Region’ means a 15 Forest Service region. 16 ‘‘(D) RENTAL CHARGE.—The term ‘rental 17 charge’ means a permit rental charge that is 18 charged under subsection (a). 19 ‘‘(E) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ 20 means the Secretary of Agriculture. 21 ‘‘(2) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of the 22 Treasury shall establish in the Treasury a special 23 account, to be known as the ‘Ski Area Fee Retention 24 Account’, into which there shall be deposited— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2509 IH ‘‘(A) in the case of a covered unit at which 1 not less than $15,000,000 is collected by the 2 covered unit from rental charges in a fiscal 3 year, an amount equal to 50 percent of the 4 rental charges collected at the covered unit in 5 the fiscal year; or 6 ‘‘(B) in the case of any other covered unit, 7 an amount equal to 65 percent of the rental 8 charges collected at the covered unit in a fiscal 9 year. 10 ‘‘(3) AVAILABILITY.—Subject to paragraphs 11 (4), (5), and (6), any amounts deposited in the Ac- 12 count under paragraph (2) shall remain available for 13 expenditure, without further appropriation, until ex- 14 pended. 15 ‘‘(4) LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF AMOUNTS IN 16 THE ACCOUNT.— 17 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 18 subparagraph (B), 100 percent of the amounts 19 deposited in the Account from a specific covered 20 unit shall remain available for expenditure at 21 the covered unit at which the rental charges 22 were collected. 23 ‘‘(B) REDUCTION.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2509 IH ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 1 (ii), the Secretary may reduce the percent- 2 age of amounts available to a covered unit 3 under subparagraph (A) if the Secretary 4 determines that the rental charges col- 5 lected at the covered unit exceed the rea- 6 sonable needs of the covered unit for that 7 fiscal year for authorized expenditures de- 8 scribed in paragraph (5)(A). 9 ‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—The Secretary 10 may not reduce the percentage of amounts 11 available under clause (i)— 12 ‘‘(I) in the case of a covered unit 13 described in paragraph (2)(A), to less 14 than 35 percent of the amount of 15 rental charges deposited in the Ac- 16 count from the covered unit in a fiscal 17 year; or 18 ‘‘(II) in the case of any other 19 covered unit, to less than 50 percent 20 of the amount of rental charges de- 21 posited in the Account from the cov- 22 ered unit in a fiscal year. 23 ‘‘(C) TRANSFER TO OTHER COVERED 24 UNITS AND USE FOR NON-SKI AREA PERMITS.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2509 IH ‘‘(i) DISTRIBUTION.—If the Secretary 1 determines that the percentage of amounts 2 otherwise available to a covered unit under 3 subparagraph (A) should be reduced under 4 subparagraph (B), the Secretary may 5 transfer to other covered units, for alloca- 6 tion in accordance with clause (ii), the per- 7 centage of the amounts withheld from the 8 covered unit under subparagraph (B), to 9 be expended by the other covered units in 10 accordance with paragraph (5). 11 ‘‘(ii) CRITERIA.—In determining the 12 allocation of amounts to be transferred 13 under clause (i) among other covered 14 units, the Secretary shall consider— 15 ‘‘(I) the number of proposals for 16 ski area improvements in the other 17 covered units; 18 ‘‘(II) any backlog in ski area per- 19 mit administration or the processing 20 of ski area proposals in the other cov- 21 ered units; and 22 ‘‘(III) any need for services, 23 training, staffing, or the streamlining 24 of programs in the other covered units 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2509 IH or the Region in which the covered 1 units are located that would improve 2 the administration of the Forest Serv- 3 ice Ski Area Program. 4 ‘‘(5) AUTHORIZED EXPENDITURES.— 5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Amounts distributed 6 from the Account to a covered unit under this 7 subsection may be used for— 8 ‘‘(i) ski area special use permit ad- 9 ministration and processing of proposals 10 for ski area improvement projects in the 11 covered unit, including staffing and con- 12 tracting for such administration or proc- 13 essing or related services in the covered 14 unit or the applicable Region; 15 ‘‘(ii) training programs on processing 16 ski area applications, administering ski 17 area permits, or ski area process stream- 18 lining in the covered unit or the Region in 19 which the covered unit is located; 20 ‘‘(iii) interpretation activities, visitor 21 information, visitor services, and signage in 22 the covered unit to enhance— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 2509 IH ‘‘(I) the ski area visitor experi- 1 ence on National Forest System land; 2 and 3 ‘‘(II) avalanche information and 4 education activities carried out by the 5 Forest Service; and 6 ‘‘(iv) the costs of leasing administra- 7 tive sites under section 8623 of the Agri- 8 culture Improvement Act of 2018 (16 9 U.S.C. 580d note; Public Law 115–334) 10 for ski area-related purposes. 11 ‘‘(B) OTHER USES.— 12 ‘‘(i) AUTHORIZED USES.—Subject to 13 clause (ii), if any remaining amounts are 14 available in the Account after all ski area 15 permit-related expenditures have been 16 made under subparagraph (A), including 17 amounts transferred to other covered units 18 under paragraph (4)(C), the Secretary may 19 use any remaining amounts for— 20 ‘‘(I) the costs of administering 21 non-ski area Forest Service recreation 22 special use permits; and 23 ‘‘(II) the costs of leasing admin- 24 istrative sites under section 8623 of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 2509 IH the Agriculture Improvement Act of 1 2018 (16 U.S.C. 580d note; Public 2 Law 115–334) for purposes not re- 3 lated to a ski area. 4 ‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT.—Before making 5 amounts available from the Account for a 6 use authorized under clause (i), the Sec- 7 retary shall make a determination that all 8 ski area-related permit administration, 9 processing, and interpretation needs have 10 been met in all covered units and Regions. 11 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Ac- 12 count may not be used for— 13 ‘‘(i) the conduct of wildfire suppres- 14 sion or preparedness activities; 15 ‘‘(ii) the conduct of biological moni- 16 toring on National Forest System land 17 under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 18 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) for listed species 19 or candidate species, except as required by 20 law for environmental review of ski area 21 projects; or 22 ‘‘(iii) the acquisition of land for inclu- 23 sion in the National Forest System. 24 ‘‘(6) SAVINGS PROVISIONS.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 2509 IH ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this sub- 1 section affects the applicability of section 7 of 2 the Act of April 24, 1950 (commonly known as 3 the ‘Granger-Thye Act’) (16 U.S.C. 580d), to 4 ski areas on National Forest System land. 5 ‘‘(B) SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING.—Rental 6 charges retained and expended under this sub- 7 section shall supplement (and not supplant) ap- 8 propriated funding for the operation and main- 9 tenance of each covered unit.’’. 10 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section (including the 11 amendments made by this section) shall take effect on the 12 date that is 60 days after the date of enactment of this 13 Act. 14 (c) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary of Agriculture 15 shall not be required to issue regulations or policy guid- 16 ance to implement this section (including the amendments 17 made by this section). 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 May 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2509.IH H2509 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS