16 U.S.C. § 410ii–6 — Research and data gathering

Consistent with and in furtherance of the purposes of the Division of Cultural Research of the Southwest Cultural Resources Center, operated by the National Park Service, the Secretary shall continue such research and data gathering activities as may be appropriate to further the purposes of this subchapter and knowledge of the Chaco culture. The Secretary shall submit in writing within six months of the effective date of this section, to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate, a plan for the continued operational program of the Division. The Secretary is authorized and encouraged to establish a committee composed of professional archeologists and others with related professional expertise including the designee of the Governor of the State of New Mexico to advise the Secretary in matters related to the surveying, excavation, curation, interpretation, protection, and management of the cultural resources of the historical park and archeological protection sites.

The Secretary shall, through the Division of Cultural Research of the Southwest Cultural Resources Center of the National Park Service, be responsible for the development of a computer-generated data base of the San Juan Basin, and make such information available to Federal and private groups when to do so will assist such groups in the preservation, management, and development of the resources of the basin.

The head of any Federal agency having direct or indirect jurisdiction over a proposed Federal or federally assisted undertaking with respect to the lands and waters in the archeological protection sites, and the head of any Federal agency having authority to license or permit any undertaking with respect to such lands and waters, shall prior to the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds on such undertaking, or prior to the issuance of any license or permit, as the case may be, afford the Secretary a reasonable opportunity to comment in writing with regard to such undertaking and its effect upon such sites, and shall give due consideration to any comments made by the Secretary and to the effect of such undertaking on the purposes for which such sites are established.