H.R. 5544 (112th): Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act

Introduced:
May 08, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Rep. Chip Cravaack [R-MN8]
Status:
Died (Passed House)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on September 12, 2012 but was never passed by the Senate.

Progress
Introduced May 08, 2012
Referred to Committee May 08, 2012
Reported by Committee Aug 01, 2012
Passed House Sep 12, 2012
Votes

On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 1 to H R 5544
Sep 12, 2012 2:18 p.m.
Failed 201/213

On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 2 to H R 5544
Sep 12, 2012 2:27 p.m.
Failed 177/236

On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 3 to H R 5544
Sep 12, 2012 2:31 p.m.
Failed 190/225

On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 4 to H R 5544
Sep 12, 2012 2:35 p.m.
Failed 191/223

On Motion to Recommit with Instructions: H R 5544 Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act
Sep 12, 2012 3:05 p.m.
Failed 183/233

House Vote on Passage
Sep 12, 2012 3:12 p.m.
Passed 225/189

Cosponsors
1 cosponsors (1R) (show)
Committees

House Natural Resources

Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To authorize and expedite a land exchange involving National Forest System land in the Laurentian District of the Superior National Forest and certain other National Forest System land in the State of Minnesota that has limited recreational and conservation resources and lands owned by the State of Minnesota in trust for the public school system that are largely scattered in checkerboard fashion within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and have important recreational, scenic, and conservation resources, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

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Last updated Sep 13, 2012.
8 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

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Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

9/12/2012--Passed House amended.
Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to complete a land exchange involving National Forest System land in Minnesota and Minnesota state lands.
Requires the exchange to be consummated pursuant to specified Minnesota law.
Makes Minnesota responsible for the costs of the survey and all other administrative costs related to the land exchange.
Adds the lands acquired by the Secretary to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and modifies the boundaries of such Wilderness to reflect their inclusion.
Prohibits the acquisition, and inclusion, of land by the United States in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from altering or affecting current fishing and hunting rights.
Deems the lands acquired by Minnesota to be state trust lands and to be held in trust for the benefit of its public school system.
Expresses the sense of Congress that, whenever the land acquired by Minnesota is not being used for revenue-gathering activities, it should make such land available for other compatible uses, including hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, snowmobiling, and trail riding.
Instructs the Secretary to modify the boundaries of Superior National Forest to reflect the land exchange under this Act. States that the land exchange under this Act shall not be considered to be a major federal action.
Prohibits the Secretary from taking into consideration the lands acquired by the United States in determining the appraisal value of System lands in Minnesota used for the purposes of making payments to Minnesota under the Thye-Blatnik Act and Humphrey-Thye-Blatnik-Andreson Act. Requires the Secretary to report to Congress, if the Secretary fails to complete the land exchange within the 18-month period following enactment of this Act.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/2/hr5544.

Background

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is a unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System which includes 1.1 million acres of land and water in and around the Superior National Forest in Northern Minnesota. The State of Minnesota owns multiple parcels of land in the BWCAW which are held in trust for the benefit of the public school system. According to the legislation, the state trust lands were acquired before the establishment of the National Forest or the BWCAW. These lands are scattered throughout the wilderness area and, largely because of federal development restrictions, are effectively prohibited from being used for development of resources to benefit the state’s public school system. The legislation would provide a land exchange that would allow the federal government to take over these lands in the BWCAW in exchange for National Forest land which the state could develop in order to provide assistance to the public school system.

In March, the Minnesota State Legislature enacted legislation to expedite the state’s portion of a proposed land exchange. Under that measure, the state-held lands within the canoe area would be conveyed to the federal government in exchange for lands of equal value outside the area. In addition to allowing the state to develop their trust lands, this transfer would also allow the Forest Service to manage and protect all of the land and resources within the wilderness area.

Summary

H.R. 5544 would require the Secretary of Agriculture to exchange federal land for land owned by the State of Minnesota. Specifically, the bill would require the Secretary to exchange approximately 86,000 acres (according to CBO estimates) of National Forest System land located in the Superior National Forest for approximately 86,000 acres of land owned by the state within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Under the legislation, land obtained by the federal government would be added to and administered as part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Land acquired by the state would be deemed state trust lands and would be held in trust for the benefit of the Minnesota public school system.

Under the legislation, the exact acreage and legal description of the land to be exchanged would be determined through a survey that is paid for by the State of Minnesota and approved by the Secretary.  In addition, the State of Minnesota would be responsible for all other administrative costs related to the land exchange. The exchange would occur pursuant to the terms outlined by law recently enacted by the State of Minnesota (S.F. 1750), that requires equal value for the parcels to be exchanged.

If the Secretary fails to complete the land transfer by the end of an 18-month period beginning after the legislation is enacted, the Secretary would be required to submit a report detailing why the exchange has not been completed.

The bill would prohibit the acquisition of land by the federal government from affecting any fishing and hunting rights in existence immediately before the land was transferred.

Cost

Initially, CBO estimated that implementing this legislation would increase direct spending by $6 million over ten years because it would increase the amount of land used to calculate federal payments made under the Humphrey-Thye-Blatnik-Andresen Acts. However, the manager’s amendment removes any transferred lands from such calculations, and therefore eliminates any direct spending associate with the bill.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)