As ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on April 24, 2013
H.R. 251 would direct the Secretary of the Interior to transfer title to the electric distribution system located in Spanish Fork, Utah, to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District. Based on information from the Bureau of Reclamation, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would have no significant net impact on the federal budget. Enacting H.R. 251 would have an insignificant impact on direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. The legislation would not affect revenues.
The electric distribution system was developed as part of the Strawberry Valley Project in the 1920s. The Strawberry Water Users Association, the nonfederal sponsor of the project, satisfied all federal repayment obligations associated with the project in 1974. In 1986, the Bureau of Reclamation transferred financial responsibility for operating and maintaining the system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District. Under current law, the bureau oversees those activities.
Under the legislation, transfer to the district of title to the electric distribution system would include all federally owned fixtures and the underlying federal land not shared by other facilities. In instances where the underlying federal land is also occupied by other facilities and in the case of shared power poles, permanent access and licensing privileges would be granted to the district to perform required maintenance.
Under H.R. 251, the Bureau of Reclamation would no longer oversee the facilities or collect licensing fees from utilities seeking easements. Based on information from the bureau, CBO estimates that the loss of those collections would not be significant.
H.R. 251 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
On March 25, 2013, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 25, the South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 14, 2013. The two pieces of legislation are similar, and the CBO cost estimates are the same.
