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![handle is hein.congrecreports/crptxafnj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUTHENTICATED
U.GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION .
Calendar No. 122
118TH CONGRESS REPORT
1st Session SENATE 118-50
ROOT AND STEM PROJECT AUTHORIZATION ACT
JULY 11, 2023.-Ordered to be printed
Mr. MANCHIN, from the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 199]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 199), to codify the authority of the Secretary
of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to conduct certain
landscape-scale forest restoration projects, and for other purposes,
having considered the same, reports favorably thereon without
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE
The purpose of S. 199, as ordered reported by the Committee, is
to codify the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-
retary of the Interior to authorize a third-party contractor to pre-
pare the environmental analysis and documentation necessary
under Federal law to conduct certain forest restoration projects.
BACKGROUND AND NEED
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires all Fed-
eral agencies to consider the environmental impacts of their actions
before undertaking those actions. 42 U.S.C. 4332. Funding con-
straints and agency staff shortages can often limit the ability of the
Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to under-
take the environmental reviews required by NEPA for forest res-
toration projects, which can delay the completion of these impor-
tant land management projects.
Regulations implementing NEPA adopted by the Council on En-
vironmental Quality have long permitted a contractor retained by
a Federal agency to prepare the environmental documents, as long
as the contractor has no financial or other interest in the outcome
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