118 STAT. 3093 PUBLIC LAW 108–447—DEC. 8, 2004 cook, chauffeur, or other personal servants to any officer or employee of such department or agency except as otherwise provided by law. SEC. 305. No assessments may be levied against any program, budget activity, subactivity, or project funded by this Act unless notice of such assessments and the basis therefor are presented to the Committees on Appropriations and are approved by such committees. SEC. 306. None of the funds in this Act may be used to plan, prepare, or offer for sale timber from trees classified as giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which are located on National Forest System or Bureau of Land Management lands in a manner different than such sales were conducted in fiscal year 2004. SEC. 307. (a) LIMITATION OF FUNDS.—None of the funds appro priated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be 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 Sec retary 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, 2005, the Secretary of the Interior shall file with the House and Senate Committees on Appro priations and the Committee on Resources of the House of Rep resentatives 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 examina tion of the mining claims or mill sites contained in a patent applica tion as set forth in subsection (b). The Bureau of Land Management shall have the sole responsibility to choose and pay the third party contractor in accordance with the standard procedures employed by the Bureau of Land Management in the retention of third party contractors. SEC. 308. 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, 106–113, 106–291, 107–63, 108–7, and 108–108 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 Affairs or the Indian Health Service as funded by such Acts, are the total amounts available for fiscal years 1994 through 2004 for such Contracts.
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