I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1194
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Mineral Leasing
Act to require reports on rejected bids, to clarify timelines for the
issuance of leases, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. H
IGGINSof Louisiana (for himself and Ms. HAGEMAN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources,
and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the
Mineral Leasing Act to require reports on rejected bids,
to clarify timelines for the issuance of leases, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Lands and 4
Waters Leasing Transparency Act’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 1194 IH
SEC. 2. REPORT ON THE DETERMINATION OF THE FAIR 1
MARKET VALUE OF OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS 2
LEASE BIDS. 3
Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 4
(43 U.S.C. 1344) is amended by adding at the end the 5
following: 6
‘‘(j) R
EPORT ON THEDETERMINATION OF THE FAIR 7
M
ARKETVALUE OFOFFSHOREOIL ANDGASLEASE 8
B
IDS.— 9
‘‘(1) R
EQUIREMENT.—If the Secretary deter-10
mines pursuant to subsection (a)(4) that the Federal 11
Government will not receive the fair market value 12
from a bid for a covered lease tract, the Secretary 13
shall provide to the bidder a report that explains the 14
basis for such determination. If the bid was a quali-15
fied bid that was subject to a resource and economic 16
evaluation, the report shall include information on 17
how such qualified bid relates to the Mean Range of 18
Values, Delay-adjusted Mean Range of Values, Ad-19
justed Delayed Value, and Revised Arithmetic Aver-20
age Measure for the covered lease tract. 21
‘‘(2) C
OVERED LEASE TRACT .—In this sub-22
section, The term ‘covered lease tract’ means a lease 23
tract for which the Secretary— 24
‘‘(A) held a lease sale; 25
‘‘(B) received at least one bid; and 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 1194 IH
‘‘(C) did not issue a lease to the highest 1
responsible qualified bidder.’’. 2
SEC. 3. EFFECT OF COURT ORDERS ON DEADLINE TO ISSUE 3
ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASES. 4
Section 17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 5
U.S.C. 226(b)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘No court 6
order may prevent the Secretary from issuing a lease by 7
such 60 day deadline unless the court finds that the 8
issuance of the lease would violate a requirement of Fed-9
eral law.’’ after ‘‘first lease year.’’. 10
SEC. 4. CIVIL ACTIONS CHALLENGING OFFSHORE LEASE 11
SALES. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-13
sion of law, a civil action challenging an offshore oil and 14
gas lease sale conducted under the Outer Continental 15
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) shall not— 16
(1) affect the validity of any lease issued under 17
such an offshore lease sale; and 18
(2) cause a delay in the timelines for the con-19
sideration of any exploration plan, development plan, 20
development operations coordination document, ap-21
plications for permit to drill, or other application for 22
a Federal agency authorization or approval for ac-23
tivities on a lease issued under such an offshore 24
lease sale. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 1194 IH
(b) REMAND; PROCESSING OFAPPROVALS ANDAP-1
PLICATIONS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 2
if, in a civil action described in subsection (a), a court 3
finds that the offshore lease sale was not carried out in 4
compliance with Federal law— 5
(1) the court shall not— 6
(A) set aside, vacate, or enjoin the offshore 7
lease sale; 8
(B) set aside, vacate, or enjoin the leases 9
issued pursuant to the offshore lease sale; or 10
(C) enjoin the Secretary of the Interior 11
from issuing leases to the highest bidders in the 12
challenged offshore lease sale; 13
(2) the court shall remand the matter to the 14
Secretary of the Interior and require the Secretary 15
of the Interior to correct the noncompliance; and 16
(3) the Secretary of the Interior shall continue 17
to process all exploration plans, development and 18
production plans, development operations coordina-19
tion documents, applications for permit to drill, and 20
other applications for a Federal agency authoriza-21
tion or other approval for activities requested under 22
any lease issued under the challenged offshore lease 23
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 1194 IH
sale in accordance with the Outer Continental Shelf 1
Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.). 2
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB