Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act Restrictions and ...

created by FLTFA. 6 However, the act limits the revenue deposited into this
account to that generated from sales or exchanges of public lands
identified for disposal in a land use plan in effect as of July 25, 2000—the
date of FLTFA’s enactment. Money in the new account is available to BLM
and the other three agencies to purchase inholdings, and in some cases,
land adjacent to federally designated areas and containing exceptional
resources. 7 The act expires in July 2010, and the Administration has
proposed revising and extending it.
BLM sells its land in one of three ways: competitive sales; modified
competitive sales, which provide a preference to existing land users or
adjoining landowners; and direct sales, which occur in special situations,
such as when parcels are completely surrounded by one landowner and
there is no public access. BLM prefers competitive sales because these
usually generate the most revenue and, therefore, are more likely to
increase the revenue available under FLTFA for land acquisitions. BLM
staff in headquarters, its 12 state offices, and 144 field offices nationwide
manage and conduct these sales. 8 About 300 full-time equivalent staff, out
of a workforce of about 10,500 full-time equivalent staff, are responsible
for land and realty management in BLM. These staff are directly
responsible for land sales and acquisitions, along with other realty
responsibilities, such as processing energy rights-of-way and leasing and
permitting on public lands.
The federal land agencies have two methods for identifying land to acquire
under FLTFA. First, the agencies can nominate parcels through a process
laid out in state-level implementation agreements that were developed
under the direction of a national memorandum of understanding (MOU)
that implemented the program. Under the process, state-level interagency
teams are to review proposals for land acquisitions and forward their
nominations to the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior for
approval. Second, the Secretaries can directly use a portion of FLTFA
6 This new account is referred to in the act as the Federal Land Disposal Account. Before
FLTFA, revenue from these transactions were typically deposited into the U.S. Treasury’s
general account.
7 According to the act (43 U.S.C. 2302), the term ‘‘exceptional resource’’ means a resource of
scientific, natural, historic, cultural, or recreational value that has been documented by a
federal, state, or local governmental authority, and for which there is a compelling need for
conservation and protection under the jurisdiction of a Federal agency in order to maintain
the resource for the benefit of the public.
8 For this report, “field offices” refers to BLM’s 26 district offices and 118 field offices.
Page 3 GAO-08-196 Federal Land Management