Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2771 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 2771
5	5	To amend the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 to authorize
6	6	States to approve certain organizations to acquire, hold, and manage
7	7	conservation easements under the Forest Legacy Program, and for other
8	8	purposes.
9	9	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
10	10	APRIL9, 2025
11	11	Mr. G
12	12	ARAMENDI(for himself, Mr. CALVERT, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. HARDERof
13	13	California, Mr. M
14	14	ULLIN, and Mr. COSTA) introduced the following bill;
15	15	which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
16	16	A BILL
17	17	To amend the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978
18	18	to authorize States to approve certain organizations to
19	19	acquire, hold, and manage conservation easements under
20	20	the Forest Legacy Program, and for other purposes.
21	21	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
22	22	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
23	23	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
24	24	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Forest Legacy Man-4
25	25	agement Flexibility Act’’. 5
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28	28	•HR 2771 IH
29	29	SEC. 2. AUTHORITY OF STATES TO ALLOW QUALIFIED OR-1
30	30	GANIZATIONS TO ACQUIRE, HOLD, AND MAN-2
31	31	AGE CONSERVATION EASEMENTS UNDER 3
32	32	THE FOREST LEGACY PROGRAM. 4
33	33	(a) S
34	34	TATEAUTHORIZATION.—Section 7 of the Coop-5
35	35	erative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 6
36	36	2103c) is amended— 7
37	37	(1) in subsection (l)— 8
38	38	(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘sub-9
39	39	section (m)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (o)’’; 10
40	40	and 11
41	41	(B) in paragraph (3)— 12
42	42	(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 13
43	43	‘‘the State of Vermont’’ and inserting ‘‘any 14
44	44	State’’; and 15
45	45	(ii) in subparagraph (B)(ii), in the 16
46	46	matter preceding subclause (I), by striking 17
47	47	‘‘of Vermont’’ and inserting ‘‘involved’’; 18
48	48	(2) by redesignating subsection (m) as sub-19
49	49	section (o); and 20
50	50	(3) by inserting after subsection (l) the fol-21
51	51	lowing: 22
52	52	‘‘(m) T
53	53	HIRD-PARTYCONSERVATIONEASEMENTS.— 23
54	54	‘‘(1) I
55	55	N GENERAL.—At the request of a State, 24
56	56	the Secretary shall authorize the State to approve el-25
57	57	igible qualified organizations to acquire, hold, and 26
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60	60	•HR 2771 IH
61	61	manage conservation easements to carry out activi-1
62	62	ties under the Forest Legacy Program. 2
63	63	‘‘(2) E
64	64	LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to acquire, 3
65	65	hold, and manage a conservation easement under 4
66	66	this subsection, a qualified organization shall dem-5
67	67	onstrate to the Secretary the abilities necessary to 6
68	68	acquire, monitor, and enforce interests in 7
69	69	forestland— 8
70	70	‘‘(A) consistent with the Forest Legacy 9
71	71	Program; and 10
72	72	‘‘(B) in accordance with the applicable as-11
73	73	sessment of need submitted to the Secretary by 12
74	74	the State in which the conservation easement is 13
75	75	located. 14
76	76	‘‘(3) R
77	77	EVERSION.—If the Secretary or a State 15
78	78	determines a condition described in paragraph (4) is 16
79	79	met with respect to a conservation easement— 17
80	80	‘‘(A) all right, title, and interest of the 18
81	81	qualified organization in and to the conserva-19
82	82	tion easement shall terminate; and 20
83	83	‘‘(B) all right, title, and interest in and to 21
84	84	the conservation easement shall revert to the 22
85	85	State or, if approved by the State, another 23
86	86	qualified organization determined eligible by the 24
87	87	Secretary under paragraph (2). 25
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90	90	•HR 2771 IH
91	91	‘‘(4) CONDITIONS FOR REVERSION .—A condi-1
92	92	tion described in this paragraph is, with respect to 2
93	93	a conservation easement acquired, held, and man-3
94	94	aged by a qualified organization, any of the fol-4
95	95	lowing: 5
96	96	‘‘(A) The qualified organization is unable 6
97	97	to carry out the responsibilities of the qualified 7
98	98	organization under the Forest Legacy Program 8
99	99	with respect to the conservation easement. 9
100	100	‘‘(B) The conservation easement has been 10
101	101	modified in a way that is inconsistent with the 11
102	102	purposes of the Forest Legacy Program or the 12
103	103	applicable assessment of need described in para-13
104	104	graph (2)(B). 14
105	105	‘‘(C) The conservation easement has been 15
106	106	conveyed to another person (other than a quali-16
107	107	fied organization determined eligible by the Sec-17
108	108	retary under paragraph (2) and approved by 18
109	109	the State). 19
110	110	‘‘(n) Q
111	111	UALIFIEDORGANIZATIONDEFINED.—In this 20
112	112	section, the term ‘qualified organization’ means an organi-21
113	113	zation that— 22
114	114	‘‘(1) is a qualified organization, as defined in 23
115	115	section 170(h)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 24
116	116	1986; 25
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119	119	•HR 2771 IH
120	120	‘‘(2) is organized for, and at all times since the 1
121	121	formation of the organization, has been operated 2
122	122	principally for one or more of the conservation pur-3
123	123	poses described in section 170(h)(4)(A) of such 4
124	124	Code; 5
125	125	‘‘(3) has not been the subject of any criminal 6
126	126	or civil enforcement action taken by the Attorney 7
127	127	General of the United States or the Commissioner of 8
128	128	the Internal Revenue Service pertaining to the chari-9
129	129	table donation of conservation easements under such 10
130	130	Code; and 11
131	131	‘‘(4) has been awarded, and at all times there-12
132	132	after maintained, accredited status by the Land 13
133	133	Trust Accreditation Commission, or if such Commis-14
134	134	sion ceases to exist, a successor organization that of-15
135	135	fers substantially similar accreditation and is ap-16
136	136	proved by the Secretary for purposes of this sec-17
137	137	tion.’’. 18
138	138	(b) T
139	139	ECHNICALCORRECTIONS.—Section 7 of the Co-19
140	140	operative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 20
141	141	2103c) is further amended— 21
142	142	(1) in subsection (i), by striking ‘‘subsection 22
143	143	(b)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (c)’’; 23
144	144	(2) in subsection (l)(3)(B)(i)(II), by inserting 24
145	145	‘‘and’’ after the semi-colon at the end; and 25
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148	148	•HR 2771 IH
149	149	(3) in the header of subsection (o), as redesig-1
150	150	nated by this section, by striking ‘‘A
151	151	PPROPRIATION’’ 2
152	152	and inserting ‘‘A
153	153	UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA-3
154	154	TIONS’’. 4
155	155	Æ
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