S. 616 would amend the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation Restoration Act to require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to transfer to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe tribe additional federal land located in the Chippewa National Forest in Cass County, Minnesota, when federal records show the land was transferred by the Department of the Interior to USDA without the unanimous consent of the rightful landowners. 

Under S. 616, USDA could substitute other National Forest System land located in Cass County for any transferable land that is found to be unsuitable for the tribe’s use. The bill would allow USDA to transfer land to the tribe on a rolling basis as the land is identified and surveyed.

Receipts generated from the sale of timber and minerals and the issuance of special use permits—for example, for recreational events—on federal land are recorded in the federal budget as offsetting receipts, that is, as reductions in direct spending. Under current law, some of those receipts are spent without further appropriation, which results in an offsetting increase in direct spending of a similar magnitude as the receipts.