| 1 | 1 | | I |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION H. R. 1194 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Mineral Leasing |
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| 6 | 6 | | Act to require reports on rejected bids, to clarify timelines for the |
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| 7 | 7 | | issuance of leases, and for other purposes. |
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| 8 | 8 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 9 | 9 | | FEBRUARY11, 2025 |
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| 10 | 10 | | Mr. H |
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| 11 | 11 | | IGGINSof Louisiana (for himself and Ms. HAGEMAN) introduced the fol- |
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| 12 | 12 | | lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, |
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| 13 | 13 | | and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be |
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| 14 | 14 | | subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration |
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| 15 | 15 | | of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con- |
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| 16 | 16 | | cerned |
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| 17 | 17 | | A BILL |
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| 18 | 18 | | To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the |
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| 19 | 19 | | Mineral Leasing Act to require reports on rejected bids, |
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| 20 | 20 | | to clarify timelines for the issuance of leases, and for |
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| 21 | 21 | | other purposes. |
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| 22 | 22 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 23 | 23 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 24 | 24 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 25 | 25 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Lands and 4 |
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| 26 | 26 | | Waters Leasing Transparency Act’’. 5 |
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| 27 | 27 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194 |
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| 28 | 28 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 29 | 29 | | •HR 1194 IH |
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| 30 | 30 | | SEC. 2. REPORT ON THE DETERMINATION OF THE FAIR 1 |
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| 31 | 31 | | MARKET VALUE OF OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS 2 |
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| 32 | 32 | | LEASE BIDS. 3 |
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| 33 | 33 | | Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 4 |
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| 34 | 34 | | (43 U.S.C. 1344) is amended by adding at the end the 5 |
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| 35 | 35 | | following: 6 |
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| 36 | 36 | | ‘‘(j) R |
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| 37 | 37 | | EPORT ON THEDETERMINATION OF THE FAIR 7 |
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| 38 | 38 | | M |
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| 39 | 39 | | ARKETVALUE OFOFFSHOREOIL ANDGASLEASE 8 |
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| 40 | 40 | | B |
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| 41 | 41 | | IDS.— 9 |
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| 42 | 42 | | ‘‘(1) R |
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| 43 | 43 | | EQUIREMENT.—If the Secretary deter-10 |
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| 44 | 44 | | mines pursuant to subsection (a)(4) that the Federal 11 |
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| 45 | 45 | | Government will not receive the fair market value 12 |
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| 46 | 46 | | from a bid for a covered lease tract, the Secretary 13 |
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| 47 | 47 | | shall provide to the bidder a report that explains the 14 |
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| 48 | 48 | | basis for such determination. If the bid was a quali-15 |
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| 49 | 49 | | fied bid that was subject to a resource and economic 16 |
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| 50 | 50 | | evaluation, the report shall include information on 17 |
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| 51 | 51 | | how such qualified bid relates to the Mean Range of 18 |
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| 52 | 52 | | Values, Delay-adjusted Mean Range of Values, Ad-19 |
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| 53 | 53 | | justed Delayed Value, and Revised Arithmetic Aver-20 |
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| 54 | 54 | | age Measure for the covered lease tract. 21 |
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| 55 | 55 | | ‘‘(2) C |
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| 56 | 56 | | OVERED LEASE TRACT .—In this sub-22 |
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| 57 | 57 | | section, The term ‘covered lease tract’ means a lease 23 |
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| 58 | 58 | | tract for which the Secretary— 24 |
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| 59 | 59 | | ‘‘(A) held a lease sale; 25 |
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| 60 | 60 | | ‘‘(B) received at least one bid; and 26 |
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| 61 | 61 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194 |
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| 62 | 62 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 |
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| 63 | 63 | | •HR 1194 IH |
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| 64 | 64 | | ‘‘(C) did not issue a lease to the highest 1 |
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| 65 | 65 | | responsible qualified bidder.’’. 2 |
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| 66 | 66 | | SEC. 3. EFFECT OF COURT ORDERS ON DEADLINE TO ISSUE 3 |
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| 67 | 67 | | ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASES. 4 |
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| 68 | 68 | | Section 17(b)(1)(A) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 5 |
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| 69 | 69 | | U.S.C. 226(b)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘No court 6 |
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| 70 | 70 | | order may prevent the Secretary from issuing a lease by 7 |
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| 71 | 71 | | such 60 day deadline unless the court finds that the 8 |
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| 72 | 72 | | issuance of the lease would violate a requirement of Fed-9 |
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| 73 | 73 | | eral law.’’ after ‘‘first lease year.’’. 10 |
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| 74 | 74 | | SEC. 4. CIVIL ACTIONS CHALLENGING OFFSHORE LEASE 11 |
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| 75 | 75 | | SALES. 12 |
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| 76 | 76 | | (a) I |
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| 77 | 77 | | NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-13 |
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| 78 | 78 | | sion of law, a civil action challenging an offshore oil and 14 |
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| 79 | 79 | | gas lease sale conducted under the Outer Continental 15 |
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| 80 | 80 | | Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) shall not— 16 |
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| 81 | 81 | | (1) affect the validity of any lease issued under 17 |
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| 82 | 82 | | such an offshore lease sale; and 18 |
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| 83 | 83 | | (2) cause a delay in the timelines for the con-19 |
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| 84 | 84 | | sideration of any exploration plan, development plan, 20 |
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| 85 | 85 | | development operations coordination document, ap-21 |
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| 86 | 86 | | plications for permit to drill, or other application for 22 |
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| 87 | 87 | | a Federal agency authorization or approval for ac-23 |
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| 88 | 88 | | tivities on a lease issued under such an offshore 24 |
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| 89 | 89 | | lease sale. 25 |
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| 90 | 90 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194 |
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| 91 | 91 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 |
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| 92 | 92 | | •HR 1194 IH |
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| 93 | 93 | | (b) REMAND; PROCESSING OFAPPROVALS ANDAP-1 |
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| 94 | 94 | | PLICATIONS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 2 |
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| 95 | 95 | | if, in a civil action described in subsection (a), a court 3 |
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| 96 | 96 | | finds that the offshore lease sale was not carried out in 4 |
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| 97 | 97 | | compliance with Federal law— 5 |
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| 98 | 98 | | (1) the court shall not— 6 |
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| 99 | 99 | | (A) set aside, vacate, or enjoin the offshore 7 |
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| 100 | 100 | | lease sale; 8 |
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| 101 | 101 | | (B) set aside, vacate, or enjoin the leases 9 |
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| 102 | 102 | | issued pursuant to the offshore lease sale; or 10 |
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| 103 | 103 | | (C) enjoin the Secretary of the Interior 11 |
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| 104 | 104 | | from issuing leases to the highest bidders in the 12 |
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| 105 | 105 | | challenged offshore lease sale; 13 |
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| 106 | 106 | | (2) the court shall remand the matter to the 14 |
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| 107 | 107 | | Secretary of the Interior and require the Secretary 15 |
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| 108 | 108 | | of the Interior to correct the noncompliance; and 16 |
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| 109 | 109 | | (3) the Secretary of the Interior shall continue 17 |
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| 110 | 110 | | to process all exploration plans, development and 18 |
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| 111 | 111 | | production plans, development operations coordina-19 |
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| 112 | 112 | | tion documents, applications for permit to drill, and 20 |
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| 113 | 113 | | other applications for a Federal agency authoriza-21 |
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| 114 | 114 | | tion or other approval for activities requested under 22 |
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| 115 | 115 | | any lease issued under the challenged offshore lease 23 |
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| 116 | 116 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194 |
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| 117 | 117 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 |
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| 118 | 118 | | •HR 1194 IH |
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| 119 | 119 | | sale in accordance with the Outer Continental Shelf 1 |
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| 120 | 120 | | Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.). 2 |
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| 121 | 121 | | Æ |
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| 122 | 122 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:55 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1194.IH H1194 |
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| 123 | 123 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB |
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