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MINERAL LEASING POLICIES

The passage of the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987 now provides a permanent prohibition of oil and gas leasing in designated wilderness study areas (WSAs) and areas recommended as suitable for wilderness. The Act does not address minerals other than oil and gas. The Wilderness Act itself however, prohibits all mineral leasing after December 31, 1983 in any designated wilderness areas (16 USC 1133(d)(3)). Leasing of minerals other than oil and gas within WSAs and areas recommended for wilderness designation remains discretionary. Current Department policy prohibits the leasing of these minerals in the subject areas; for example, the coal management rules require that WSAs be designated as unsuitable for further consideration from coal leasing. Based on passage of the Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and in conformance with current Departmental policies not to allow other mineral leasing in WSAS, the Department believes that Section 307 can be deleted from the 1989 Appropriation Act.

We recognize the Committee's continuing concern in this area; however, we would like to point out that provisions of Section 307 prevent the Department from processing any actions, even to reject long standing lease applications that cannot meet current tests. Therefore, a number of cases continue to be pending on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) dockets and cannot be cleared because of the current wording of Section 307. The BLM would be willing to meet with staff members in an effort to modify the existing 307 language. This would permit processing and clearance of a number of long standing preference right lease applications that cannot meet the required criteria and have remained on the books for a number of years.

NEEDED AIRCRAFT

Mr. YATES. Why do you need four new aircraft as opposed to replacement?

Mr. VENTURA. Perhaps Patricia Ryan, Director of Administrative Services, could respond to that.

Mr. YATES. Ms. Ryan? According to your request, you want seven replacement aircraft and four new ones.

Mr. ITTEILAG. I think, Mr. Chairman, the answer to that question is something like this. Every year the Office of Aircraft Services makes an estimate of what they believe they might need. Now, that estimate includes some factors over which no one has any control, and that is how long are airplanes going to be operated and whether or not any airplanes are going to crash.

And what we try to do, I suspect based on the experience I've had to date, is to project a worst case scenario, and we very rarely use all the authority that we ask for. So, this is a request that is normal in that regard.

Mr. YATES. Well, then you just want authority to buy four new planes without the money for them?

Mr. ITTEILAG. The money would be included in the working capital fund and is reimbursed by the bureaus over a period of time as those airplanes are used.

Mr. YATES. In other words, the money is there now, and you want the authority.

Mr. ITTEILAG. This is only authority. And if OAS has a more specific need than I've articulated, we will insert something in the record and tell you what it is.

REPROGRAMMING OF FERS MONEY

Mr. YATES. What is the status of the reprogramming associated with the surplus of FERS money in Fiscal Year 1988?

Mr. ITTEILAG. Mr. Chairman, the status is that, with one exception those have been provided to us by the bureaus. We are in the process of looking at them for consistency and whether or not they make good programmatic sense, and to have the Office of Management and Budget clear them. So, hopefully, within the next week or so, we should be able to break those loose.

Mr. YATES. So far there has been no response to a letter that Mr. Regula and I sent regarding the need to submit reprogrammings in a more timely fashion. Are you going to answer us some day?

Mr. ITTEILAG. Yes, Mr. Chairman. We were hoping to answer you by sending the reprogrammings. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to move as quickly as we would like to or probably as we ought to.

Mr. YATES. I know that Mr. Regula is waiting very anxiously for the reply.

ADVISORY COMMITTEES

All right, GAO report. GAO in March said that you didn't comply with the legal requirement for the Outdoors Commission and criticized the Department for its advisory committee management. Who is responsible for advisory committee management in the Department?

Mr. VENTURA. The Office of the Under Secretary.

Mr. YATES. So, you don't have to worry about that then.

Mr. GORRELL. Yes, we do. [Laughter.]

Mr. YATES. How many advisory committees are there in the Department of the Interior? It must be a lot.

Mr. GORRELL. There are a great number, Mr. Chairman. I don't know what the exact number is.

Mr. YATES. Could you provide a list of the advisory committees for the record?

Mr. GORRELL. Yes, we can. [The information follows:]