16 U.S.C. § 3181 — Alaska Land Use Council

(a) Establishment. The Alaska Land Use Council (the “Council”) is established.

(b) Cochairmen. The Council has Federal and State Cochairmen. The President appoints the Federal Cochairman with Senate advice and consent. The Governor of Alaska is the State Cochairman.

(c) Members. Besides the Cochairmen, the Council includes the Alaska heads of the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, NOAA, and Transportation; the Commissioners of Alaska’s Natural Resources, Fish and Game, Environmental Conservation, and Transportation Departments; and two representatives selected by Alaska Native Regional Corporations, in consultation with their Village Corporations, representing the twelve regions in section 1606(a) of title 43. Vacancies are filled in the same way as the original appointments.

(d) State decision not to participate. If Alaska does not participate, or ends participation before the Council ends, the Council consists of the Federal Cochairman, the agencies in (c)(1), and the Native Corporation representatives in (c)(3). It performs this subchapter’s administrative functions and makes recommendations to Federal officials on matters in (i) and (j). It may also make recommendations to State officials and private landowners.

(e) Compensation and expenses. (1) The President sets the Federal Cochairman’s pay, not above Executive Schedule level IV. (2) Other Federal employee members receive no extra pay. (3) Federal employee members and members under (c)(3) away from home or regular business locations for Council work receive travel expenses, including per diem, as intermittent Government employees do under section 5703(b) of title 5. (4) The State Cochairman and other State members are paid under State law.

(f) Administrative authority. (1) Acting jointly, the Cochairmen may create or abolish jobs, set employee qualifications, appointments, removals, pay, pension, and retirement rights, and obtain office space, supplies, and equipment. (2) The Council office must be in Alaska. (3) Except as provided in (d), the Federal Government pays only 50 percent in a fiscal year of Council costs and expenses other than member salaries and benefits. (4) With consent, the Council may use other agencies’ services, equipment, personnel, and facilities, with or without reimbursement; Federal departments and agencies must cooperate fully. Detailed personnel work under the Cochairmen. (5) The Council may accept and use donations, gifts, and contributions. (6) It must keep complete activity and transaction accounts and records, available for public inspection.

(g) Meetings, authority, and reports. The Council meets when the Cochairmen call it, at least four times each year. It may hold hearings, take testimony, receive evidence, and print or reproduce and distribute reports about proceedings as it considers advisable. By February 1 of each year after the year it is established, the Cochairmen must report in writing to the President, Congress, the Governor, and Alaska Legislature on the prior year’s activities and any recommendations for legislation or other action.

(h) Rules. The Council shall adopt needed internal procedures. Meetings must be open to the public. At least 15 days before a meeting, the Cochairman must publish notice in the Federal Register and newspapers generally circulating in various Alaska areas.

(i) Functions. (1) The Council shall study and advise the Secretary, Agriculture Secretary, other Federal agencies, Alaska, local governments, and Native Corporations about ongoing, planned, and proposed Alaska land and resource uses, including transportation planning, land-use designation, fish and wildlife management, tourism, agricultural development, coastal-zone management, preservation of cultural and historical resources, and other matters members submit for advice. (2) It shall recommend to appropriate United States and Alaska officials concerning (A) Federal regulations under this Act; management plans and studies required by this Act, including those for conservation units, wild and scenic rivers, and wilderness; and Alaska regulations under this Act and other laws; (B) better coordination and consultation on wildlife, transportation, wilderness review, and other regional or statewide activities; (C) orderly, planned economic development compatible with State and national economic, social, and environmental objectives; (D) needed changes in laws, policies, and programs for public lands and resources; (E) inventory, planning, classification, management, and use of Federal and State lands, and assistance to Native Corporations on request; (F) needed changes in existing Federal and State land withdrawals; (G) Federal and State land-agency programs and budgets; and (H) land exchanges among the United States, Alaska, and Native Corporations.

(j) Cooperative planning. (1) The Council shall recommend zones where one member’s land or resource management materially affects another’s, including Northwest Arctic, North Slope, and Bristol Bay. Federal members may and are encouraged to make agreements with Federal, State, and local agencies and Native Corporations for mutual consultation, review, and coordination of resource plans and programs in those zones. (2) For lands, waters, and interests covered by such an agreement, the Secretary may provide the landowner technical and other help with fire control, trespass control, law enforcement, resource use, and planning, beyond applicable-law requirements. The help may be free if the Secretary finds it furthers the agreement and serves the public interest. (3) Agreements must include a public-participation plan consistent with (m).

(k) Nonacceptance. A Federal or State agency rejecting a Council recommendation under (i) or (j) must tell the Council in writing within 30 days why.

(l) Termination. Unless Congress extends it, the Council ends 10 years after December 2, 1980. At least one year before then, the Cochairmen must report to Congress on its accomplishments and recommend extension or other legislation or action to continue its purposes.

(m) Public participation. The Council shall establish and carry out a public-participation program. It must include (1) a Cochairmen-appointed land-use-advisers committee representing commercial and industrial users, recreational and wilderness users, environmental groups, Native Corporations, and other public and private organizations, with a balanced national, State, and local mixture of perspective and expertise as far as practicable; and (2) a system to identify rural and urban Alaska people and communities directly or significantly affected by Council studies, advice, or recommendations, plus guidelines and implementation for their effective participation in developing them.