Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act Restrictions and ...

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Figure 9: The 320-Acre Winter’s Ranch FLTFA Acquisition Nomination in Nevada, Valued at $29 Million Source: GAO. Over one-half of the state-level interagency teams—Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah—did not review any land acquisitions proposals between July 2000, when FLTFA was enacted, and May 2007. Furthermore, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Park Service have yet to submit a nomination for review under the state-level interagency process. Fish and Wildlife Service and Park Service officials based in California said they lacked the FLTFA funding necessary to complete an acquisition and would have to wait until sufficient revenue were available to allow them to nominate an acquisition. In examining the headquarters review and approval process, we found that the Land Transaction Facilitation Council established in the national MOU has never met. The BLM FLTFA program lead explained that, as a practical matter, it has not been necessary for this council to meet. Rather, in practice, acquisition nominations are forwarded to the BLM lead and then routed to his counterparts at the other three agencies for review. Page 35 GAO-08-196 Federal Land Management
State-Level Process Has Not Yet Resulted in Acquisitions Because of the Time Taken to Complete Interagency Agreements and Limited Funds outside of Nevada Additional reviews are then conducted at the agency level and, ultimately, at the secretarial level. Although the agencies envisioned it as the primary process for nominating land for acquisition under FLTFA, the state-level process established in the national MOU and state-level interagency agreements has yet to result in a completed land acquisition for two primary reasons. First, it has taken over 6 years for the four agencies to complete all interagency agreements—3 years for the agencies to complete a national MOU and an additional 3 years for the agencies to complete all state-level implementation agreements. Most agencies completed Federal Register notifications of their procedures to identify and set priorities for inholdings, as called for in the act, soon after state-level agreements were signed. Nevada was the first state to complete the implementation agreement in June 2004, and it published a Federal Register notice in August 2004. Utah was the last state to complete these actions, reaching an agreement in November 2006 and publishing its Federal Register notice in March 2007. Table 6 summarizes the completion of implementation agreements and the Federal Register publication for each state. Page 36 GAO-08-196 Federal Land Management
Page 1 and 2: GAO February 2008 GAO-08-196 United
Page 3 and 4: Contents Letter 1 Results in Brief
Page 5 and 6: Abbreviations BLM Bureau of Land Ma
Page 7 and 8: providing security, and protecting
Page 9 and 10: evenue to acquire specific parcels
Page 11 and 12: BLM faces several challenges to rai
Page 13 and 14: Background Federal Land Sales Autho
Page 15 and 16: Federal Land Acquisition Funding ti
Page 17 and 18: FLTFA Requirements on Use of Revenu
Page 19 and 20: BLM Has Raised Most FLTFA Revenue f
Page 21 and 22: Figure 3: FLTFA Revenue by Fiscal Y
Page 23 and 24: BLM Faces Several Challenges to Fut
Page 25 and 26: Most BLM States Have Planned FLTFA
Page 27 and 28: Figure 5: BLM “North Fork” 167-
Page 29 and 30: FLTFA’s Restriction on Land Avail
Page 31 and 32: Agencies Have Purchased Few Parcels
Page 33 and 34: Table 4: Status of FLTFA Land Acqui
Page 35 and 36: Figure 7: Part of an Inholding in t
Page 37 and 38: Agency State Federally designated a
Page 39: The nomination that was withdrawn b
Page 43 and 44: BLM Reports Spending $3.2 Million o
Page 45 and 46: Agencies Face Challenges in Complet
Page 47 and 48: Compliance with Specific Provisions
Page 49 and 50: The Agencies Have Yet to Establish
Page 51 and 52: Matters for Congressional Considera
Page 53 and 54: If you or your staff have questions
Page 55 and 56: Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and
Page 57 and 58: Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and
Page 59 and 60: Appendix II: Completed FLTFA Land S
Page 69 and 70: Appendix III: Detailed Information
Page 71 and 72: Appendix III: Detailed Information
Page 73 and 74: Appendix IV: Comments from the Depa
Page 75 and 76: Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff A

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