Federal Land Management: Appeals and Litigation (CRS Report for Congress)
Premium Purchase PDF for $24.95 (20 pages)
add to cart or
subscribe for unlimited access
Pro Premium subscribers have free access to our full library of CRS reports.
Subscribe today, or
request a demo to learn more.
| Release Date |
Feb. 26, 1997 |
| Report Number |
97-274 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Pamela Baldwin, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
This document also available in PDF Image .
The Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Land Management in
the Department of the Interior each currently have a system of administrative appeals for most
agency land management decisions. Critics assert that administrative and judicial appeals are
stopping or unacceptably slowing the decision-making processes and the use of federal lands and
resources; that many appeals are "frivolous" and brought for the purpose of frustrating rather than
improving land management actions, and that appeals greatly increase the costs of management.
Others respond that appeals have not been excessive or unwarranted, that few appeals are frivolous
and there currently are means to deal with such appeals, and that Congress intended the federal land
management systems to include review of the agencies' decisions in order to ensure public
participation and that the agencies actually and adequately take into account the various factors and
policies Congress intended be implemented.
The December 5, 1996 draft of the "Public Land Management Responsibility and
Accountability Restoration Act" would affect administrative and judicial appeals of land
management decisions of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in several ways.
Some of the bill provisions are procedural -- for example, those that would specify time limits within
which certain actions must be taken. Other provisions would change the nature of the "appeal"
action -- for example, those that would limit an appeal to the filing of a petition to amend a plan.
Still other provisions would significantly modify the substance of the current land planning and
management requirements and processes so that the grounds for appeals would be significantly
changed.
This report presents an overview of the current appeal systems of the Forest Service and the
Bureau of Land Management, includes current statistics on judicial review of agency actions, and
discusses how the draft bill might affect appeals and litigation of agency decisions.
This overview was prepared at the request of the Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land
Management of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources as background for one of
its series of workshops on proposed legislation on federal land management.
