I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 978
To rescind Public Land Order 7917, to reinstate mineral leases and permits
in the Superior National Forest, to ensure timely review of Mine Plans
of Operations, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY5, 2025
Mr. S
TAUBER(for himself, Mr. FINSTAD, Mrs. FISCHBACH, Mr. FULCHER,
Mr. T
IFFANY, Mr. BEGICH, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. HUNT, Ms. MALOY, Ms.
H
AGEMAN, and Mr. GOSAR) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To rescind Public Land Order 7917, to reinstate mineral
leases and permits in the Superior National Forest, to
ensure timely review of Mine Plans of Operations, 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 ‘‘Superior National For-4
est Restoration Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SUPERIOR NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS IN 1
MINNESOTA. 2
(a) R
ESCISSION.—The order titled ‘‘Public Land 3
Order No. 7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands; Cook, 4
Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, MN’’, issued by the Bu-5
reau of Land Management and dated January 31, 2023, 6
is hereby rescinded. 7
(b) T
IMELYREVIEW.—The Secretary shall complete 8
all necessary environmental and regulatory reviews, in-9
cluding processes subject to the National Environmental 10
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), for all Mine 11
Plans of Operations within the Superior National Forest 12
lands in the State of Minnesota— 13
(1) with respect to a Mine Plan of Operations 14
submitted or resubmitted in the 10-year period be-15
ginning on the date of the enactment of this section, 16
not later than 18 months after the date on which 17
such Mine Plan of Operations is submitted or resub-18
mitted; and 19
(2) with respect to a Mine Plan of Operations 20
reviewed pursuant to this section, all necessary sup-21
plemental environmental and regulatory reviews 22
shall be reviewed by the Secretary not later than 6 23
months after the date on which such supplemental 24
Mine Plan of Operations is submitted, and all nec-25
essary regulatory and environmental permits shall be 26
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issued not later than 6 months after the Mine Plan 1
of Operations is approved. 2
(c) R
EISSUANCE OFMINERALLEASES.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall issue 4
each mineral lease, preference right lease, and 5
prospecting permit canceled by the Secretary relat-6
ing to lands within Superior National Forest during 7
the period beginning on January 31, 2021, and end-8
ing on the date of the enactment of this section. 9
Such mineral leases, preference right leases, and 10
prospecting permits shall be reissued on the same 11
terms as were in effect on the date of such cancella-12
tions, except that— 13
(A) prospecting permits shall be reissued 14
with their original terms and conditions as es-15
tablished upon initial issuance; and 16
(B) all mineral leases and preference right 17
leases shall be modified to— 18
(i) an initial term of 20 years begin-19
ning on the date of the enactment of this 20
section; 21
(ii) a nondiscretionary right to re-22
newal for 5 subsequent 10-year terms; and 23
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(iii) a right to make reasonable ad-1
justments of the rental and royalty terms 2
at renewal. 3
(2) J
UDICIAL REVIEW.—A lease or permit 4
issued under paragraph (1) is not subject to judicial 5
review. 6
(d) I
SSUANCE OF NEWPREFERENCE RIGHT 7
L
EASES.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 9
provision of law, not later than 5 days after the date 10
of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall 11
grant preference right leases for any preference 12
right lease applications that were rejected after Jan-13
uary 31, 2021, and prior to the date of the enact-14
ment of this section and have received a notice of 15
preliminary valuable deposit determination. 16
(2) L
EASE TERMS.—Such preference right 17
leases shall be issued with terms consistent with sub-18
section (c)(1). 19
(e) P
ERMITS FORUSE OFSURFACELANDS.—With 20
respect to lands subject to a lease pursuant to subsection 21
(d), the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of 22
Agriculture, may issue permits for the use of surface lands 23
not included in the lease for purposes connected with, and 24
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reasonably necessary to, the exploration, development, and 1
use of the deposits covered by the lease. 2
(f) S
ECRETARYDEFINED.—For the purposes of this 3
section, the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means— 4
(1) the Secretary of the Interior; or 5
(2) when used with respect to any unit of the 6
National Forest System, the Secretary of Agri-7
culture. 8
Æ
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