114 STAT. 988 PUBLIC LAW 106-291—OCT. 11, 2000 authority to obligate or expend such funds that such pedestrian use is consistent with generally accepted safety standards. SEC. 311. (a) LIMITATION OF FUNDS. —None of the funds appro- Eriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall e obligated or expended to accept or process applications for a patent for any mining or mill site claim located under the general mining laws. (b) EXCEPTIONS.— The provisions of subsection (a) shall not apply if the Secretary of the Interior determines that, for the claim concerned: (1) a patent application was filed with the Secretary on or before September 30, 1994; and (2) all requirements established under sections 2325 and 2326 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 29 and 30) for vein or lode claims and sections 2329, 2330, 2331, and 2333 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 35, 36, and 37) for placer claims, and section 2337 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 42) for mill site claims, as the case may be, were fully complied with by the applicant by that date. (c) REPORT. — On September 30, 2001, the Secretary of the Interior shall file with the House £m.d Senate Committees on Appropriations and the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on actions taken by the Department under the plan submitted pursuant to section 314(c) of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997 (Public Law 104-208). (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 Management 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. 312. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, amounts appropriated to or earmarked in committee reports for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service by Public Laws 103-138, 103-332, 104-134, 104-208, 105-83, 105-277, and 106- 113 for payments to tribes and tribal organizations for contract support costs associated with self-determination or self-governance contracts, grants, compacts, or annual funding agreements with the Bureau of Indian Affgiirs or the Indian HeeJth Service as funded by such Acts, are the total amounts available for fiscal years 1994 through 2000 for such purposes, except that, for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribes and tribal organizations may use their tribal priority allocations for unmet indirect costs of ongoing contracts, grants, self-governance compacts or annual funding agreements. SEC. 313. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for fiscal year 2001 the Secretaries of Agrictilture and the Interior are authorized to limit competition for watershed restoration project contracts as part of the "Jobs in the Woods" component of the President's Forest Plan for the Pacific Northwest or the Jobs in the Woods Program established in Region 10 of the Forest Service to individuals and entities in historically timber-dependent areas in the States of Washington, Oregon, northern California and Alaska that
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