I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 513
To nullify certain Presidential withdrawals of unleased offshore land, amend
the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish limits on the author-
ity of the President to withdraw unleased offshore land, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. H
IGGINSof Louisiana (for himself, Mr. HUNT, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr.
B
URCHETT, Mr. SHREVE, Mr. MEUSER, Mr. ARRINGTON, Mrs. MILLER
of West Virginia, Mr. C
RENSHAW, Mr. BRECHEEN, Ms. VANDUYNE, Mr.
P
ERRY, Mr. TIFFANY, Mrs. MILLERof Illinois, Mr. OGLES, Mr.
B
URLISON, Mr. CLYDE, Mr. BIGGSof Arizona, Mr. HARRISof Maryland,
and Mr. M
OOREof Alabama) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the
Committee on Rules, 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 concerned
A BILL
To nullify certain Presidential withdrawals of unleased off-
shore land, amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands
Act to establish limits on the authority of the President
to withdraw unleased offshore land, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Offshore Lands Au-2
thorities Act of 2025’’. 3
SEC. 2. NULLIFICATION OF PRESIDENTIAL WITHDRAWALS 4
OF UNLEASED OFFSHORE LAND. 5
The following Presidential withdrawals of unleased 6
offshore land shall have no force or effect: 7
(1) The Presidential Memorandum of December 8
20, 2016, titled ‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of 9
Certain Portions of the United States Arctic Outer 10
Continental Shelf From Mineral Leasing’’ (relating 11
to the Chukchi Sea Planning Area and the Beaufort 12
Sea Planning Area). 13
(2) The Presidential Memorandum of December 14
16, 2014, titled ‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of 15
Certain Areas of the United States Outer Conti-16
nental Shelf From Leasing Disposition’’ (relating to 17
the North Aleutian Basin Planning Area). 18
(3) Section 3 of Executive Order 13754 (81 19
Fed. Reg. 90669; relating to Northern Bering Sea 20
climate resilience). 21
(4) Section 4(b) of Executive Order 13990 (86 22
Fed. Reg. 7037; relating to reinstating Executive 23
Order 13754 and the Presidential Memorandum of 24
December 20, 2016). 25
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(5) The Presidential Memorandum of March 1
13, 2023, titled ‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of 2
Certain Areas off the United States Arctic Coast of 3
the Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Gas Leas-4
ing’’ (relating to the Beaufort Planning Area). 5
(6) The Presidential Memorandum of December 6
20, 2016, titled ‘‘Memorandum on Withdrawal of 7
Certain Areas off the Atlantic Coast on the Outer 8
Continental Shelf From Mineral Leasing’’ (relating 9
to canyons and canyon complexes offshore the Atlan-10
tic coast). 11
(7) The Presidential Memorandum of January 12
6, 2025, titled ‘‘Memorandum on the Withdrawal of 13
Certain Areas of the United States Outer Conti-14
nental Shelf from Oil or Natural Gas Leasing’’ (re-15
lating to the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, and Pacific 16
areas). 17
(8) The Presidential Memorandum of January 18
6, 2025, titled ‘‘Memorandum on the Withdrawal of 19
Certain Areas of the United States Outer Conti-20
nental Shelf from Oil or Natural Gas Leasing’’ (re-21
lating to the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resil-22
ience Area). 23
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SEC. 3. LIMITATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT TO 1
WITHDRAW UNLEASED OFFSHORE LANDS. 2
Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 3
Act (43 U.S.C. 1341(a)) is amended— 4
(1) by striking ‘‘(a)The President’’ and insert-5
ing the following: 6
‘‘(a) W
ITHDRAWAL OF UNLEASEDLANDS BY THE 7
P
RESIDENT.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-9
graphs (2) and (3), the President’’; 10
(2) by inserting ‘‘Beginning on the date of en-11
actment of the Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 12
2025, the President shall transmit a withdrawal 13
made under the preceding sentence to the President 14
of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Rep-15
resentatives.’’ after ‘‘outer Continental Shelf.’’; and 16
(3) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(2) L
IMITATIONS.— 18
‘‘(A) A
CRES.—A withdrawal under para-19
graph (1) may not exceed an area larger than 20
150,000 acres in total or contiguous with any 21
other withdrawal under such paragraph. 22
‘‘(B) P
ERIOD.—A withdrawal under para-23
graph (1) may not be made for a period longer 24
than 20 years. 25
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‘‘(C) CUMULATIVE WITHDRAWALS .—No 1
President may, under paragraph (1), withdraw 2
more than 500,000 acres cumulatively without 3
obtaining Congressional approval. 4
‘‘(3) A
SSESSMENTS REQUIRED .—The President 5
may not withdraw unleased lands of the outer Conti-6
nental Shelf under paragraph (1) unless— 7
‘‘(A) the Secretary completed a quan-8
titative and qualitative geophysical and geologi-9
cal mineral resource assessment of the lands to 10
be withdrawn during the 5-year period ending 11
on the date of such withdrawal; 12
‘‘(B) the Secretary, in consultation with 13
the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of 14
Energy, the Secretary of Defense, and the Sec-15
retary of Agriculture, completed an assessment 16
of the economic, energy, and national security 17
value of mineral deposits identified in the min-18
eral resource assessment completed under sub-19
paragraph (A); 20
‘‘(C) the Secretary completed an assess-21
ment of the expected reduction in future Fed-22
eral revenues resulting from the proposed with-23
drawal to the Treasury, States (including from 24
allocations made under section 105 of the Gulf 25
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of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 (43 1
U.S.C. 1331 note)), the Land and Water Con-2
servation Fund, and the Historic Preservation 3
Fund; and 4
‘‘(D) the Secretary submits to the Commit-5
tees on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Armed 6
Services, Energy and Commerce, and Foreign 7
Affairs of the House of Representatives and the 8
Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and For-9
estry, Armed Services, Energy and Natural Re-10
sources, and Foreign Relations of the Senate a 11
report that includes the results of the assess-12
ments completed under this subsection. 13
‘‘(4) C
ONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL PROCE -14
DURE.— 15
‘‘(A) J
OINT RESOLUTION DEFINED .—For 16
the purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘joint 17
resolution’ means only a joint resolution, which 18
may not have a preamble, the matter after the 19
resolving clause of which is as follows: ‘That 20
Congress disapproves the withdrawal made 21
under section 12(a)(1) of the Outer Continental 22
Shelf Lands Act on llll, relating to 23
llll, and such withdrawal shall have no 24
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force or effect.’ (the blank spaces being appro-1
priately filled in). 2
‘‘(B) R
EFERRAL.—A joint resolution de-3
scribed in subparagraph (A) shall be referred to 4
the committees in each House of Congress with 5
jurisdiction. 6
‘‘(C) D
ISCHARGE.—In the Senate, if the 7
committee to which is referred a joint resolution 8
described in subparagraph (A) has not reported 9
such joint resolution (or a joint resolution 10
aimed at the same Presidential withdrawal) at 11
the end of 20 calendar days after the submis-12
sion or introduction of legislation to disapprove 13
the withdrawal, such committee may be dis-14
charged from further consideration of such joint 15
resolution and placed on the appropriate cal-16
endar of the Senate upon a petition supported 17
in writing by 30 Members of the Senate. 18
‘‘(D) F
LOOR CONSIDERATION.— 19
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In the Senate, 20
when the committee to which a joint reso-21
lution is referred has reported, or when a 22
committee is discharged (under subpara-23
graph (C)) from further consideration of, a 24
joint resolution described in subparagraph 25
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(A), it is at any time thereafter in order 1
(even though a previous motion to the 2
same effect has been disagreed to) for a 3
motion to proceed to the consideration of 4
the joint resolution, and all points of order 5
against the joint resolution (and against 6
consideration of joint resolution) are 7
waived. The motion is not subject to 8
amendment, to a motion to postpone, or to 9
a motion to proceed to the consideration of 10
other business. A motion to reconsider the 11
vote by which the motion is agreed to or 12
disagreed to shall not be in order. If a mo-13
tion to proceed to the consideration of the 14
joint resolution is agreed to, the joint reso-15
lution shall remain the unfinished business 16
of the Senate until disposed of. 17
‘‘(ii) D
EBATE.—In the Senate, debate 18
on the joint resolution, and on all debat-19
able motions and appeals in connection 20
therewith, shall be limited to not more 21
than 10 hours, which shall be divided 22
equally between those favoring and those 23
opposing the resolution. A motion further 24
to limit debate is in order and not debat-25
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able. An amendment to, or a motion to 1
postpone, or a motion to proceed to the 2
consideration of other business, or a mo-3
tion to recommit the resolution is not in 4
order. 5
‘‘(iii) F
INAL PASSAGE.—In the Sen-6
ate, immediately following the conclusion 7
of the debate on a resolution described in 8
subparagraph (A), and a single quorum 9
call at the conclusion of the debate if re-10
quested in accordance with the rules of the 11
Senate, the vote on final passage of the 12
resolution shall occur. 13
‘‘(iv) A
PPEALS.—In the Senate, ap-14
peals from the decisions of the Chair relat-15
ing to the application of the rules of the 16
Senate to the procedure relating to a reso-17
lution described in subparagraph (A) shall 18
be decided without debate. 19
‘‘(v) T
REATMENT IF OTHER HOUSE 20
HAS ACTED.—If, before the passage by one 21
House of a resolution of that House de-22
scribed in subparagraph (A), that House 23
receives from the other House a resolution 24
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described in subparagraph (A), then the 1
following procedures shall apply: 2
‘‘(I) N
ONREFERRAL.—The reso-3
lution of the other House shall not be 4
referred to a committee. 5
‘‘(II) F
INAL PASSAGE.—With re-6
spect to a resolution described in sub-7
paragraph (A) of the House receiving 8
the resolution— 9
‘‘(aa) the procedure in that 10
House shall be the same as if no 11
resolution had been received from 12
the other House; but 13
‘‘(bb) the vote on final pas-14
sage shall be on the resolution of 15
the other House. 16
‘‘(vi) D
EBATE ON VETO MESSAGE .— 17
In the Senate, debate on a veto message 18
from the President on a joint resolution 19
described in subparagraph (A), including 20
all debatable motions and appeals in con-21
nection therewith, shall be limited to not 22
more than 10 hours, equally divided be-23
tween those favoring and those opposing 24
the resolution. A motion further to limit 25
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debate is in order and not debatable. No 1
amendment to the veto message shall be in 2
order. The vote on passage of the joint res-3
olution following the veto message shall 4
occur immediately following the conclusion 5
of debate. 6
‘‘(E) C
ONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY .—Sub-7
paragraphs (A) through (D) are enacted by 8
Congress— 9
‘‘(i) as an exercise of the rulemaking 10
power of the Senate and the House of Rep-11
resentatives, respectively, and as such it is 12
deemed a part of the rules of each House, 13
respectively, but applicable only with re-14
spect to procedure to be followed in this 15
paragraph, and it supersedes other rules 16
only to the extent that it is inconsistent 17
with such rules; and 18
‘‘(ii) with full recognition of the con-19
stitutional right of either House to change 20
the rules (so far as relating to the proce-21
dure of that House) at any time, in the 22
same manner, and to the same extent as in 23
the case of any other rule of that House. 24
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‘‘(F) LACK OF EFFECT OR CONTINUANCE ; 1
SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR WITHDRAWALS .— 2
‘‘(i) L
ACK OF EFFECT OR CONTINU -3
ANCE.—A withdrawal made under section 4
12(a)(1) of the Outer Continental Shelf 5
Lands Act shall not take effect (or con-6
tinue), if the Congress enacts a joint reso-7
lution of disapproval, described under sub-8
paragraph (A), of the withdrawal. 9
‘‘(ii) S
UBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR WITH -10
DRAWALS.—A withdrawal that does not 11
take effect (or does not continue) under 12
clause (i) may not be reissued in substan-13
tially the same form, and a new withdrawal 14
that is substantially the same as such a 15
withdrawal may not be issued, unless the 16
reissued or new withdrawal is specifically 17
authorized by a law enacted after the date 18
of the joint resolution disapproving the 19
original withdrawal. 20
‘‘(G) J
UDICIAL REVIEW.—No determina-21
tion, finding, action, or omission under this 22
paragraph shall be subject to judicial review. 23
‘‘(H) S
UBMISSION OF COVERED AGENCY 24
ACTION TO CONGRESS.— 25
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‘‘(i) REQUIREMENT TO SUBMIT .—Any 1
covered agency action subject to the dis-2
approval procedures under this subsection 3
shall be submitted to Congress by the 4
agency responsible for the action. Such 5
submission must include the text of the 6
agency action, a concise summary of the 7
action, and the date on which the action 8
was taken. 9
‘‘(ii) T
RANSMITTAL.—For purposes of 10
this subsection, the date of submission of 11
the covered agency action to Congress shall 12
be the later of— 13
‘‘(I) the date on which the agen-14
cy submits the action to both the 15
President of the Senate and the 16
Speaker of the House of Representa-17
tives; or 18
‘‘(II) the date on which the agen-19
cy makes the action publicly available 20
in the Federal Register or by another 21
publicly accessible method. 22
‘‘(iii) S
TART OF PROCEDURES .—The 23
submission of the covered agency action 24
under clause (i) shall trigger the expedited 25
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parliamentary procedures set forth in this 1
subsection. No resolution under this sub-2
section may be considered in either cham-3
ber until such submission has occurred. 4
‘‘(iv) N
OTICE OF SUBMISSION.—Upon 5
receipt of a covered agency action, the 6
President of the Senate and the Speaker of 7
the House of Representatives shall cause a 8
notice of such submission to be published 9
in the Congressional Record on the next 10
calendar day of their respective chambers. 11
‘‘(5) I
NTEGRATION WITH 5 -YEAR OIL AND GAS 12
LEASING PROGRAM.—The President may not make a 13
withdrawal under paragraph (1) that conflicts with 14
areas included in a lease sale scheduled under an oil 15
and gas leasing program approved under Section 16
18.’’. 17
Æ
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