{ "id": "R42951", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "R", "number": "R42951", "active": true, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov, EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov", "sourceLink": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R42951", "id": "R42951_18_2023-05-25", "date": "2023-05-25", "retrieved": "2023-06-30T04:03:26.370694", "title": "The Oregon and California Railroad Lands (O&C Lands): In Brief", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "R", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "url": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42951/18", "sha1": "93c93281a8a4079b87336a0d62289fedfe8da4f9", "filename": "files/2023-05-25_R42951_93c93281a8a4079b87336a0d62289fedfe8da4f9.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/2023-05-25_R42951_93c93281a8a4079b87336a0d62289fedfe8da4f9.html", "source": "pymupdf" } ], "source_dir": "crsreports.congress.gov" }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 437041, "date": "2015-01-14", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T19:40:37.332498", "title": "The Oregon and California Railroad Lands (O&C Lands): Issues for Congress", "summary": "The Oregon and California Railroad (O&C) lands consist of 2.6 million acres of timberland in western Oregon. The majority of these lands (2.5 million acres) were originally granted to the Oregon & California Railroad Company in 1866 for constructing approximately 300 miles of the Oregon portion of a railroad from Portland, OR, to Sacramento, CA. However, in 1915 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the railroad company violated the terms of the grant. The disposition of these lands was eventually resolved with the O&C Act of 1937, which revested the lands back into federal ownership to be managed by the Department of the Interior \u201cfor permanent forest production\u201d with the purpose of providing a supply of timber, protecting watersheds, providing recreational opportunities, and contributing to the economic stability of the local communities. The O&C Act of 1937 established a revenue-sharing system with the 18 counties in Oregon that contain O&C lands. Currently at issue for Congress are payments to the counties that contain O&C land, and the applicability of various land management and environmental laws. \nThe O&C lands are managed under the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). The NWFP is a series of administrative policies and forest management directives adopted in the 1990s. The NWFP covers 24 million acres of public land, including 19 national forests managed by the Forest Service and 7 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) districts in California, Oregon, and Washington. The O&C lands make up 11% of the NWFP management area by acreage, and 37% of Oregon\u2019s NWFP management area by acreage.\nThe 1937 O&C Act established a revenue sharing system to compensate for the loss of property tax revenue when the O&C lands were revested back to the federal government. When timber sales and revenues began to decline in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s, Congress established alternative compensation systems for the county payments: first, the safety net payments specifically for the Pacific Northwest, and then, the broader Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (SRS; P.L. 106-393, as amended). After several reauthorizations and extensions\u2014including the most recent one-year reauthorization for FY2013 (P.L. 113-40)\u2014SRS expired after the FY2013 payment was issued in early 2014. Therefore, the O&C counties will not receive an SRS payment for FY2014 (to be made in 2015), but the payments will return to 50% of receipts, unless Congress acts to extend, modify, or replace SRS. These payments would likely be significantly lower than previous years\u2019 SRS payments. \nThe 113th Congress considered legislation to address the management of the O&C lands and federal payment programs to the O&C counties. A House-passed bill (H.R. 1526, the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act) would have transferred management authority of much of the O&C lands to a governor-appointed panel and established a trust with fiduciary responsibility to the counties, among other provisions related to the management and applicability of federal environmental laws. A Senate bill reported out of committee, S. 1784, would have retained management authority within the BLM, but would have designated portions of the O&C lands as forestry emphasis areas, and other portions as conservation emphasis areas, each with different management prescriptions. Neither proposal was enacted. \nManagement of the O&C lands and federal payments to the O&C counties may continue to be issues for the 114th Congress. For example, The Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 2015, S. 132, was introduced on January 8, 2015, and is very similar to S. 1784 from the 113th Congress.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42951", "sha1": "728c34cf22053a7cda569d6f1cd7b41dbd55eb61", "filename": "files/20150114_R42951_728c34cf22053a7cda569d6f1cd7b41dbd55eb61.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42951", "sha1": "d89c88b4c73cb3904da01fef162afc1a52e5421e", "filename": "files/20150114_R42951_d89c88b4c73cb3904da01fef162afc1a52e5421e.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 314, "name": "Federal Lands" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Energy Policy" ] }