16 U.S.C. § 410ii–6: Research and data gathering

Summary

Require the Secretary to keep doing research and gathering data at the Division of Cultural Research at the Southwest Cultural Resources Center, run by the National Park Service, to support this subchapter and increase knowledge of the Chaco culture. The Secretary must send a written plan for how that work will continue within six months of the law taking effect to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate. The Secretary may set up an advisory committee of professional archaeologists and other experts, including the Governor of New Mexico’s designee, to advise on surveying, digs, curation, interpretation, protection, and management of park and site resources. The Secretary must also develop a computer database of the San Juan Basin through the Division and share information with federal and private groups when it will help preserve, manage, or develop basin resources. Any federal agency that controls, funds, licenses, or permits a project affecting the archaeological protection sites must give the Secretary a reasonable chance to comment in writing before spending federal funds or issuing a permit, and must consider the Secretary’s comments and the project’s effect on the sites’ purposes.

Title 16, §410ii–6

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Plan for continued operational program; submittal to Congress

Consistent with and in furtherance of the purposes of the Division of Cultural Research of the Southwest Cultural Resources Center, operated by the National Park Service, the Secretary shall continue such research and data gathering activities as may be appropriate to further the purposes of this subchapter and knowledge of the Chaco culture. The Secretary shall submit in writing within six months of the effective date of this section, to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate, a plan for the continued operational program of the Division. The Secretary is authorized and encouraged to establish a committee composed of professional archeologists and others with related professional expertise including the designee of the Governor of the State of New Mexico to advise the Secretary in matters related to the surveying, excavation, curation, interpretation, protection, and management of the cultural resources of the historical park and archeological protection sites.

(b)Computer-generated data base; furnishing of information to Federal and private groups

The Secretary shall, through the Division of Cultural Research of the Southwest Cultural Resources Center of the National Park Service, be responsible for the development of a computer-generated data base of the San Juan Basin, and make such information available to Federal and private groups when to do so will assist such groups in the preservation, management, and development of the resources of the basin.

(c)Opportunity for Secretary to comment on proposed expenditures and permits

The head of any Federal agency having direct or indirect jurisdiction over a proposed Federal or federally assisted undertaking with respect to the lands and waters in the archeological protection sites, and the head of any Federal agency having authority to license or permit any undertaking with respect to such lands and waters, shall prior to the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds on such undertaking, or prior to the issuance of any license or permit, as the case may be, afford the Secretary a reasonable opportunity to comment in writing with regard to such undertaking and its effect upon such sites, and shall give due consideration to any comments made by the Secretary and to the effect of such undertaking on the purposes for which such sites are established.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The

Effective Date

of this section, referred to in subsec. (a), probably means the date of enactment of Pub. L. 96–550, which was approved Dec. 19, 1980.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the House of Representatives changed to Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives on Jan. 5, 1993, by House Resolution No. 5, One Hundred Third Congress. Cooperative Agreements for Curation and Research Pub. L. 108–413, § 4, Oct. 30, 2004, 118 Stat. 2325, provided that: “The Secretary [of the Interior] may enter into cooperative agreements with the University of New Mexico, Federal agencies, and Indian tribes for the curation of and conduct of research on artifacts, and to encourage collaborative management of the Chacoan archaeological artifacts associated with northwestern New Mexico.”

§410ii–6 Research and Data Gathering