U.S. CODE

U.S. Code

§ 2415. Federal facilities, property, and equipment; leasing of tribal property

(a) Facility availability

In the furtherance of the purposes and goals of this chapter, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall make available for community use, to the extent permitted by law and as may be provided in a Tribal Action Plan, local Federal facilities, property, and equipment, including school facilities. Such facility availability shall include school facilities under the Secretary of the Interior’s jurisdiction: Provided, That the use of any school facilities shall be conditioned upon approval of the local school board with jurisdiction over such school.

(b) Costs

Any additional cost associated with the use of Federal facilities, property, or equipment under subsection (a) of this section may be borne by the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Health and Human Services out of available Federal, tribal, State, local, or private funds, if not otherwise prohibited by law. This subsection does not require the Secretary of the Interior nor the Secretary of Health and Human Services to expend additional funds to meet the additional costs which may be associated with the provision of such facilities, property, or equipment for community use. Where the use of Federal facilities, property, or equipment under subsection (a) of this section furthers the purposes and goals of this chapter, the use of funds other than those funds appropriated to the Department of the Interior or the Department of Health and Human Services to meet the additional costs associated with such use shall not constitute an augmentation of Federal appropriations.

(1) The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Health and Human Services are authorized to enter into long-term leases of tribally owned or leased facilities to house programs established by this chapter where they determine that there is no Federal facility reasonably available for such purpose and the cost of constructing a new Federal facility would exceed the cost of such Federal lease unless they determine that mitigating factors favor such a lease.

(2) A tribally owned or leased facility may be leased pursuant to this authority to house a regional treatment center to be established pursuant to section 2474 (b) ^[1] of this title only if all the tribes within the Indian Health Service area to be served by such regional treatment center initially consent to such Federal lease.

[1] See References in Text note below.

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