PUBLIC L.\W 104-134—APR. 26, 1996 110 STAT. 1321-204 as to whether or not an applicant is entitled to a patent under the general mining laws on at least 90 percent of such applications within five years of the enactment of this Act and file reports annually thereafter with the same committees detailing actions taken by the Department of the Interior to carry out such plan; and (2) Take such actions as may be necessary to carry out such plan. (d) MINERAL EXAMINATIONS.— In order to process patent applications in a timely and responsible manner, upon the request of a patent applicant, the Secretary of the Interior shall allow the applicant to fund a qualified third-party contractor to be selected by the Bureau of Land Managment to conduct a mineral examination of the mining claims or mill sites contained in a patent application as set forth in subsection (b). The Bureau of Land Management shall have the sole responsibility to choose and pay the thirdparty contractor in accordance with the standard procedures employed by the Bureau of Land Management in the retention of third-party contractors. SEC. 323. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for the purposes of acquiring lands in the counties of Lawrence, Monroe, or Washington, Ohio, for the Wayne National Forest. SEC. 324. No part of any appropriation contained in this Act or any other Act shall be expended or obligated to fund the activities of the Office of Forestry and Economic Development after December 31, 1995. SEC. 325. (a) For one year after enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall continue the current Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) and may accommodate commercial tourism (if an agreement is signed between the Forest Service and the Alaska Visitors' Association) except that during this period, the Secretary shall maintain at least the number of acres of suitable available and suitable scheduled timber lands, and Allowable Sale Quantity as identified in the Preferred Alternative (Alternative P) in the Tongass Land and Resources Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement (dated October 1992) as selected in the Record of Decision Review Draft #3-2/93. Nothing in this paragraph shall be interpreted to mandate clear-cutting or require the sale of timber and nothing in this paragraph, including the ASQ identified in Alternative P, shall be construed to limit the Secretary's consideration of new information or to prejudice future revision, amendment or modification of TLMP based upon sound, verifiable scientific data. (b) If the Forest Service determines in a Supplemental Evaluation to an Environmental Impact Statement that no additional analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act or section 810 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act is necessary for any timber sale or ofiering which has been prepared for acceptance by, or award to, a purchaser after December 31, 1988, that has been subsequently determined by the Forest Service to be available for sale or offering to one or more other purchaser, the change of purchasers for whatever reason shall not be considered a significant new circumstance, and the Forest Service may offer or award such timber sale or offering to a different purchaser or offeree, notwithstanding any other provision of law. A determina-
�
