Description:
S. 508 would convey federally owned portions of Oregon and California Railroad grant lands in the state of Oregon to local Indian tribes—about 17,500 acres to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and about 14,700 acres to the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. The bill would then require that the Department of the Interior (DOI) locate a similar amount of land in the public domain and reclassify that land as Oregon and California Railroad grant land. Finally, the bill would amend how the federal government manages forest land held in trust for the benefit of the Coquille Tribe of Coos County, Oregon.
Under current law, the lands specified for conveyance generate federal receipts from the sale of timber, which are treated a reductions in direct spending; those amounts are not available to be spent without further appropriation. The government currently retains about 50 percent of the total receipts earned from Oregon and California Railroad grant lands and 96 percent of receipts earned on lands in the public domain. Thus, conveying the land to the tribes and reclassifying other federal lands would reduce such receipts and increase direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply.
Based on an analysis of information provided by DOI about the value of timber harvested on those properties, CBO estimates that enacting S. 508 would increase net direct spending by $5 million over the 2018-2027 period. The changes in outlays that are subject to those pay-as-you-go procedures are shown in the attached table. Enacting S. 508 would not affect revenues and implementing the bill would have no significant effect on spending subject to appropriation.
CBO estimates that enacting S. 508 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits by more than $5 billion in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 508 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would benefit the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe and the Confederate Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians by transferring federal land into trust for those tribes.
