Ski Area Fee Retention Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1723 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 5, 2019 Mr. GARDNER (for himself, Mr. BENNET, Mr. BARRASSO, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. CRAPO, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 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 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF SKI AREA FEE RETENTION AC- 6 COUNT. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 701 of division I of the 8 Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1723 IS 1996 (16 U.S.C. 497c) is amended by adding at the end 1 the following: 2 ‘‘(k) SKI AREA FEE RETENTION ACCOUNT.— 3 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 4 ‘‘(A) ACCOUNT.—The term ‘Account’ 5 means the Ski Area Fee Retention Account es- 6 tablished under paragraph (2). 7 ‘‘(B) COVERED UNIT.—The term ‘covered 8 unit’ means a national forest that collects a 9 rental charge under this section. 10 ‘‘(C) REGION.—The term ‘Region’ means a 11 Forest Service region. 12 ‘‘(D) RENTAL CHARGE.—The term ‘rental 13 charge’ means a permit rental charge that is 14 charged under subsection (a). 15 ‘‘(E) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ 16 means the Secretary of Agriculture. 17 ‘‘(2) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of the 18 Treasury shall establish in the Treasury a special 19 account, to be known as the ‘Ski Area Fee Retention 20 Account’, into which there shall be deposited— 21 ‘‘(A) in the case of a covered unit at which 22 not less than $15,000,000 is collected by the 23 covered unit from rental charges in a fiscal 24 year, an amount equal to 50 percent of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1723 IS rental charges collected at the covered unit in 1 the fiscal year; or 2 ‘‘(B) in the case of any other covered unit, 3 an amount equal to 65 percent of the rental 4 charges collected at the covered unit in a fiscal 5 year. 6 ‘‘(3) AVAILABILITY.—Subject to paragraphs 7 (4), (5), and (6), any amounts deposited in the Ac- 8 count under paragraph (2) shall remain available for 9 expenditure, without further appropriation, until ex- 10 pended. 11 ‘‘(4) LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF AMOUNTS IN 12 THE ACCOUNT.— 13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 14 subparagraph (B), 100 percent of the amounts 15 deposited in the Account from a specific covered 16 unit shall remain available for expenditure at 17 the covered unit at which the rental charges 18 were collected. 19 ‘‘(B) REDUCTION.— 20 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 21 (ii), the Secretary may reduce the percent- 22 age of amounts available to a covered unit 23 under subparagraph (A) if the Secretary 24 determines that the rental charges col- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1723 IS lected at the covered unit exceed the rea- 1 sonable needs of the covered unit for that 2 fiscal year for authorized expenditures de- 3 scribed in paragraph (5)(A). 4 ‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—The Secretary 5 may not reduce the percentage of amounts 6 available under clause (i)— 7 ‘‘(I) in the case of a covered unit 8 described in paragraph (2)(A), to less 9 than 35 percent of the amount of 10 rental charges deposited in the Ac- 11 count from the covered unit in a fiscal 12 year; or 13 ‘‘(II) in the case of any other 14 covered unit, to less than 50 percent 15 of the amount of rental charges de- 16 posited in the Account from the cov- 17 ered unit in a fiscal year. 18 ‘‘(C) TRANSFER TO OTHER COVERED 19 UNITS AND USE FOR NON-SKI AREA PERMITS.— 20 ‘‘(i) DISTRIBUTION.—If the Secretary 21 determines that the percentage of amounts 22 otherwise available to a covered unit under 23 subparagraph (A) should be reduced under 24 subparagraph (B), the Secretary may 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1723 IS transfer to other covered units, for alloca- 1 tion in accordance with clause (ii), the per- 2 centage of the amounts withheld from the 3 covered unit under subparagraph (B), to 4 be expended by the other covered units in 5 accordance with paragraph (5). 6 ‘‘(ii) CRITERIA.—In determining the 7 allocation of amounts to be transferred 8 under clause (i) among other covered 9 units, the Secretary shall consider— 10 ‘‘(I) the number of proposals for 11 ski area improvements in the other 12 covered units; 13 ‘‘(II) any backlog in ski area per- 14 mit administration or the processing 15 of ski area proposals in the other cov- 16 ered units; and 17 ‘‘(III) any need for services, 18 training, staffing, or the streamlining 19 of programs in the other covered units 20 or the Region in which the covered 21 units are located that would improve 22 the administration of the Forest Serv- 23 ice Ski Area Program. 24 ‘‘(5) AUTHORIZED EXPENDITURES.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1723 IS ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Amounts distributed 1 from the Account to a covered unit under this 2 subsection may be used for— 3 ‘‘(i) ski area special use permit ad- 4 ministration and processing of proposals 5 for ski area improvement projects in the 6 covered unit, including staffing and con- 7 tracting for such administration or proc- 8 essing or related services in the covered 9 unit or the applicable Region; 10 ‘‘(ii) training programs on processing 11 ski area applications, administering ski 12 area permits, or ski area process stream- 13 lining in the covered unit or the Region in 14 which the covered unit is located; 15 ‘‘(iii) interpretation activities, visitor 16 information, visitor services, and signage in 17 the covered unit to enhance— 18 ‘‘(I) the ski area visitor experi- 19 ence on National Forest System land; 20 and 21 ‘‘(II) avalanche information and 22 education activities carried out by the 23 Forest Service; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1723 IS ‘‘(iv) the costs of leasing administra- 1 tive sites under section 8623 of the Agri- 2 culture Improvement Act of 2018 (16 3 U.S.C. 580d note; Public Law 115–334) 4 for ski area-related purposes. 5 ‘‘(B) OTHER USES.— 6 ‘‘(i) AUTHORIZED USES.—Subject to 7 clause (ii), if any remaining amounts are 8 available in the Account after all ski area 9 permit-related expenditures have been 10 made under subparagraph (A), including 11 amounts transferred to other covered units 12 under paragraph (4)(C), the Secretary may 13 use any remaining amounts for— 14 ‘‘(I) the costs of administering 15 non-ski area Forest Service recreation 16 special use permits; and 17 ‘‘(II) the costs of leasing admin- 18 istrative sites under section 8623 of 19 the Agriculture Improvement Act of 20 2018 (16 U.S.C. 580d note; Public 21 Law 115–334) for purposes not re- 22 lated to a ski area. 23 ‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT.—Before making 24 amounts available from the Account for a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1723 IS use authorized under clause (i), the Sec- 1 retary shall make a determination that all 2 ski area-related permit administration, 3 processing, and interpretation needs have 4 been met in all covered units and Regions. 5 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Ac- 6 count may not be used for— 7 ‘‘(i) the conduct of wildfire suppres- 8 sion or preparedness activities; 9 ‘‘(ii) the conduct of biological moni- 10 toring on National Forest System land 11 under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 12 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) for listed species 13 or candidate species, except as required by 14 law for environmental review of ski area 15 projects; or 16 ‘‘(iii) the acquisition of land for inclu- 17 sion in the National Forest System. 18 ‘‘(6) SAVINGS PROVISIONS.— 19 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this sub- 20 section affects the applicability of section 7 of 21 the Act of April 24, 1950 (commonly known as 22 the ‘Granger-Thye Act’) (16 U.S.C. 580d), to 23 ski areas on National Forest System land. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •S 1723 IS ‘‘(B) SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING.—Rental 1 charges retained and expended under this sub- 2 section shall supplement (and not supplant) ap- 3 propriated funding for the operation and main- 4 tenance of each covered unit.’’. 5 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section (including the 6 amendments made by this section) shall take effect on the 7 date that is 60 days after the date of enactment of this 8 Act. 9 (c) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary of Agriculture 10 shall not be required to issue regulations or policy guid- 11 ance to implement this section (including the amendments 12 made by this section). 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Jun 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1723.IS S1723 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS