HR8454-119

What This Bill Does

The bill transfers about 160 acres of National Forest land to the Department of the Interior for Yosemite National Park and about 170 acres of National Park land to the Department of Agriculture for Stanislaus National Forest. The controlling map is dated February 24, 2022. The two Secretaries may agree to minor boundary corrections. The transfers take effect when notice is published in the Federal Register. This is a transfer between federal administrators, not a sale to a private developer.

Who Benefits and How

National Park Service administrators and Forest Service administrators gain responsibility for land assigned to their respective systems. Existing licensees, lessees and holders of valid rights retain those interests; the bill does not cancel their rights merely because the federal manager changes. More coherent management may benefit park visitors and forest users, but the text does not promise improved access or additional funding.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture must arrange the transfer, notice and subsequent management. The reported text removes the introduced version's special requirements to identify and notify the receiving Secretary about hazardous substances and retain outgoing-agency cleanup responsibility. That deletion reduces these bill-specific duties but is not an express exemption from generally applicable environmental law. It leaves less explicit allocation of cleanup duties in this bill.

Key Provisions

• Transfers approximately 160 acres into Yosemite National Park and 170 acres into Stanislaus National Forest.
• Authorizes mutually agreed minor map corrections and requires Federal Register notice before transfer.
• Protects valid existing rights, licenses and leases while modifying the administering federal agency.
• Modifies the proposed transfer conditions by omitting the earlier hazardous-substance notice and cleanup-responsibility provisions.