The Federal Agency Official is responsible for ensuring that the agency disposes of material remains according to the requirements of this subpart. A determination made under this subpart in no way affects a Federal land manager’s obligations under other applicable laws or regulations. The Federal Agency Official must take all the following actions before making a final determination that it is appropriate to dispose of material remains.

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(a) The Federal Agency Official must determine that the material remains are eligible for disposal under the criteria in § 79.12(a).

(b) The Federal Agency Official must verify in writing that none of the material remains proposed for disposal meet the criteria in § 79.12(b).

(c) The Federal Agency Official must verify that the material remains proposed for disposal are appropriately documented through a professional procedure approved by the Federal agency that is consistent with curatorial services, including accessioning and cataloging, as defined in § 79.4(b).

(d) The Federal Agency Official must consult with qualified museum professionals located in the repository that provides curatorial services for the material remains proposed for disposal if those museum professionals did not propose the disposal under § 79.12(c)(2). This consultation with the qualified museum professionals must address the appropriateness of the proposed disposal.

(e) The Federal Agency Official must establish a collections advisory committee of at least five members to review proposed dispositions of material remains. The committee must make a consensus recommendation to the Federal Agency Official about each proposed disposition based on the adequacy of the documentation addressing the requirements in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section and the appropriateness of the proposed disposition based on the criteria in § 79.12(e).

(1) The collections advisory committee must consist of qualified employees from Federal agencies who meet appropriate Professional Qualification Standards set by the Secretary of the Interior, and must include the curator and the principal archeologist of the Federal agency that owns or administers the material remains if either or both of these two positions exist. The Departmental Consulting Archeologist may not participate on the collections advisory committee. If the Departmental Consulting Archeologist is the principal archeologist, then the Federal Agency Official must designate another qualified archeologist at the agency instead.

(2) Collections advisory committee members must include Federal employees with subject matter or technical expertise in the object types, cultural period, and culture area of the proposed disposition. These employees may include archeologists, anthropologists, curators, and conservators with expertise in historic, prehistoric, or underwater material remains.

(3) If the material remains being proposed for disposal are Native American, then collections advisory committee members must also include at least one or more individuals who are Tribal Officials acting in their official capacities representing their respective federally recognized Indian tribes that are regularly consulted by the Federal agency regarding the collection containing the material remains being proposed for disposal.

(4) The collections advisory committee must have written procedures and governing rules, including terms of member appointments and the duration of the committee, approved by the Federal Agency Official, to ensure all recommendations about the appropriateness of disposal are fair, open, timely, and in the best interests of the public.

(5) The collections advisory committee must submit a written report to the Federal Agency Official for each proposed disposition that, at a minimum, documents the information required for the Federal Register notice identified in paragraphs (i)(1)(i) through (iii) of this section; membership of the committee and each member’s role and expertise pertinent to the proposed disposition; a summary of any comments received on the proposed disposition under paragraph (h) of this section; the recommendations for disposition, including any conditions of transfer or conveyance; and the reasons why other methods of disposal would be of lesser public benefit.

(6) Federal employees or qualified members of federally recognized Indian tribes may be temporarily added to the committee if its existing members determine that specific expertise, including archeological knowledge of the cultural period and cultural area, is needed on a case-by-case basis.

(7) Collections advisory committee members, whether permanent or temporary, and their family members may not benefit financially or in any other way from a disposition of material remains, except to the extent that members of a federally recognized Indian Tribe, when that Indian Tribe is being considered as a potential recipient of material remains, may participate in the collections advisory committee as described in § 79.15(e)(3).

(f) The Federal Agency Official must retain in the curated collection a sample of those material remains determined to be overly redundant and not useful for research that is representative of the population as a whole from which the sample was taken.

(1) The size of the representative sample must be large enough to permit future analysis for research purposes.

(2) The method for establishing a representative sample, including sample size and typology, must be determined by a qualified museum or archeological professional with expertise in the type of prehistoric or historic material remains being sampled.

(3) The sampling method must be documented and consistent with professional prehistoric or historic archeological practice.

(g) The Federal Agency Official must retain all associated records in the archeological collection as defined in § 79.4(a)(2). A copy of the original associated records must be given to the recipient of any transferred or conveyed items subject to the restrictions stipulated in the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (16 U.S.C. § 470hh(a)). For material remains excavated and removed from Indian land, a copy of the original associated records must be given to the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (or other designated tribal representative) from the tribal land where the material remains were recovered.

(h) The Federal Agency Official must notify the entities listed in this paragraph of the proposed disposition and solicit comments on the proposal. Notifications must be made in writing, and must include a deadline for submitting comments that is at least 60 days after notice is issued, in accordance with procedures established by the Federal agency. All written comments must be reviewed by the Federal Agency Official and the collections advisory committee. The Federal Agency Official will respond to all relevant, substantive comments received. Notice must be given to the following:

(1) The State Historic Preservation Officer and, where established, the State Archeologist, from the state(s) where the material remains to be disposed of were recovered.

(2) The Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (or other designated tribal representative) from the Indian land(s) where the material remains to be disposed of were recovered.

(3) Federal, state, tribal, or local agencies that were involved in the recovery of the material remains to be disposed of.

(4) Private landowners from whose lands the material remains to be disposed of were removed, but only in such cases where the Federal agency obtained practical management authority over the material remains as the result of activities conducted in connection with a Federal action, assistance, license, or permit, on those private lands.

(5) Universities, museums, scientific institutions, and educational institutions with which the agency has an existing relationship pursuant to a written instrument (e.g., permit, agreement) for research, excavation, curation, education, or other partnership in the state and region from which the material remains to be disposed of were recovered.

(6) Indian tribes that consider the land to have religious or cultural importance, if the material remains are from a site on public lands that has religious or cultural importance to Indian tribes under 43 CFR 7.7(b)(1).

(7) Indian tribes from whose aboriginal lands the material remains were removed, if aboriginal occupation has been documented by a final judgment of the Indian Claims Commission or the United States Court of Claims, treaty, Act of Congress, or Executive Order.

(i) The Federal Agency Official must, after the comment period described in paragraph (h) of this section has expired and the Federal Agency Official has responded to all relevant, substantive comments received, publish a notice of determination of disposition in the Federal Register.

(1) The notice published in the Federal Register must include the following:

(i) A general description of the material remains to be disposed.

(ii) The criteria used to determine that the material remains are of insufficient archeological interest under § 79.12(e).

(iii) The method of disposal.

(iv) The name of the Federal Agency Official or their designee as a point of contact.

(v) An explanation of a person’s right to object to the determination of disposition under § 79.16 and the name, email, and physical address of the Departmental Consulting Archeologist.

(2) The Federal Agency Official must also prepare a determination of disposition that includes the following:

(i) A detailed list of the material remains to be disposed, including a description of each object, or lot of objects if there are multiples of a particular type, and photograph(s) of the objects when appropriate.

(ii) The report of the collections advisory committee as stipulated in paragraph (e)(5) of this section.

(iii) Documentation that all of the procedures in § 79.15 have been met.

(iv) The name of the recipient entity or method of disposal, as appropriate.

(v) Justification of the method to be used to dispose of the material remains under § 79.13.

(vi) The name of the Federal Agency Official or their designee as a point of contact.

(vii) Other conditions of transfer or conveyance, as appropriate.

(viii) A statement that the determination is a final agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. § 704) unless an objection is filed in accordance with § 79.16.