[House Report 113-647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


113th Congress  }                                    {  Rept. 113-647
  2d Session    }        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES    {         Part 1

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                    SIKES ACT COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS

                                _______


December 8, 2014.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______


 Mr. Hastings of Washington, from the Committee on Natural Resources,
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                            ADDITIONAL VIEWS

                        [To accompany H.R. 4309]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 4309) to amend the Sikes Act to make certain
improvements to the administration of cooperative agreements
for land management related to Department of Defense readiness
activities, and for other purposes, having considered the same,
report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that
the bill as amended do pass.
    The amendment is as follows:
  Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:

SECTION 1. COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS UNDER SIKES ACT FOR LAND MANAGEMENT
                    RELATED TO DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE READINESS
                    ACTIVITIES.

  (a) Multiyear Agreements to Fund Long-term Management.--Subsection
(b) of section 103A of the Sikes Act (16 U.S.C. 670c-1) is amended--
          (1) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``Funds''; and
          (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
  ``(2) In the case of a cooperative agreement under subsection (a)(2),
funds referred to in paragraph (1)--
          ``(A) may be paid in a lump sum and include an amount
        intended to cover the future costs of the natural resource
        maintenance and improvement activities provided for under the
        agreement;
          ``(B) may be invested by the recipient in accordance with the
        recipient's own guidelines for the management and investment of
        financial assets, and any interest or income derived from such
        investment may be applied for the same purposes as the
        principal; and
          ``(C) may be used only for payment of--
                  ``(i) direct costs of maintenance and improvement of
                natural resources on the lands within the scope of the
                agreement and only pursuant to an approved Department
                of Defense Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan;
                and
                  ``(ii) indirect and administrative costs, as
                determined in accordance with official guidance issued
                by the Office of Management and Budget, but not to
                exceed 10 percent of the total cost of the project.''.
  (b) Availability of Funds and Relation to Other Laws.--Subsection (c)
of such section is amended to read as follows:
  ``(c) Availability of Funds and Relation to Other Laws.--(1)
Cooperative agreements and interagency agreements entered into under
this section shall be subject to the availability of funds.
  ``(2) Notwithstanding chapter 63 of title 31, United States Code, a
cooperative agreement under this section may be used to acquire
property or services for the direct benefit or use of the United States
Government.
  ``(3) Amounts available to the Department of Defense may not be used
under this Act to acquire fee title interest in real property for
natural resources projects that are not on a military installation.''.
  (c) Audit.--The Inspector General of the Department of Defense shall
conduct an audit of the natural resources projects funded with amounts
available to the Department of Defense under the Sikes Act, as amended
by this section, that is not on a military installation. Not later than
October 1, 2018, the Inspector General shall submit to Congress a
report on the audit conducted under this subsection.
  (d) Sunset.--This section and the provisions of law enacted by the
amendments made by this section shall expire on October 1, 2019, except
that any cooperative agreement referred to in such provisions that is
entered into on or before September 30, 2019, shall continue according
to its terms and conditions as if this section has not expired.