Save Oak Flat Act

Summary: Save Oak Flat Act This bill amends the Carl Levin and Howard P. &quot;Buck&quot; McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 to repeal the authorization and requirement for a land exchange between the Department of Agriculture and Resolution Copper Mining, LLC. under which 2,422 acres of Forest Service land located in Pinal County, Arizona, are to be exchanged for various parcels of land owned by Resolution Copper. 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Save Oak Flat Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
        McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 
        (16 U.S.C. 539p) authorizes approximately 2422 acres of Forest 
        Service land known as ``Oak Flat'' in the Tonto National Forest 
        in Southeastern Arizona that is sacred to Indian tribes in the 
        region, including the San Carlos Apache Tribe, to be 
        transferred to a mining company called Resolution Copper. That 
        company plans to hold the Forest land privately for a mining 
        project that will result in the physical destruction of tribal 
        sacred areas and deprive American Indians from practicing their 
        religions, ceremonies, and other traditional practices. The 
        mining project will also create significant negative 
        environmental impacts by destroying the area and depleting and 
        contaminating precious water resources.
            (2) Once Resolution Copper owns the Oak Flat area, it plans 
        to use the highly destructive block cave mining method to 
        remove one cubic mile of ore that is now 7,000 feet beneath the 
        surface of the earth without replacing any of the earth removed 
        because that is the cheapest form of mining. Resolution Copper 
        admits that the surface will subside and ultimately collapse, 
        destroying forever this place of worship.
            (3) The Tonto National Forest in which Oak Flat is located 
        was established in 1905 from the ancestral homelands of the 
        Tonto Apache and other American Indians who were forcibly 
        removed at gunpoint from the Oak Flat area and other areas of 
        the Tonto National Forest by the United States Army in the 
        1880s and imprisoned in other areas, including what is now the 
        San Carlos Apache Reservation, located approximately 15 miles 
        from Oak Flat, where Apaches were held as prisoners of war 
        until the early 1900s.
            (4) Section 3003 was included in the Carl Levin and Howard 
        P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for 
        Fiscal Year 2015 without proper legislative process and 
        circumvented the will of the majority of Members of the House 
        of Representatives. Section 3003 was originally introduced in 
        the House of Representatives as H.R. 687 and in the Senate as 
        S. 339 in the 113th Congress. H.R. 687 was brought to the floor 
        of the House of Representatives for consideration twice and was 
        pulled from consideration both times. S. 339 was never 
        considered by the Senate or even considered for mark up by the 
        Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Section 3003 
        was then included in the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
        McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 
        without majority support from either the House or Senate and an 
        amendment to remove section 3003 was not allowed to be 
        considered.
            (5) American Indian tribes have ceded or have had taken 
        from them millions of acres of land to help build the United 
        States and have suffered under Federal assimilationist policies 
        that sought to destroy tribal cultures. Despite these policies, 
        American Indians continue to practice their religions as they 
        have done for thousands of years. American Indian places of 
        worship, or sacred areas, are often land based, including 
        mountains, streams, and trees. As a result of previous Federal 
        land policies that resulted in the significant loss of lands of 
        American Indian tribes, many sacred areas of tribes are now 
        located on Federal lands.
            (6) The United States has a trust responsibility 
        acknowledged by Congress to protect tribal sacred areas on 
        Federal lands. These laws require meaningful consultations with 
        affected Indian tribes before making decisions that will impact 
        American Indians. In contradiction to these laws, section 3003 
        requires the mandatory conveyance of a tribal sacred area 
        located on Federal lands regardless of the outcome of 
        consultation with affected Indian tribes.
            (7) Section 3003 was strongly opposed by Indian tribes 
        nationwide because it sets dangerous legislative precedent for 
        the lack of protection of tribal sacred areas located on 
        Federal lands by mandating the conveyance of Federal lands with 
        significant religious, cultural, historic, and anthropological 
        significance for Indian tribes to a private company that will 
        destroy the land.
            (8) Section 3003 circumvents standard environmental review 
        procedures that ensure that the public interest is protected, 
        including the interests of Indian tribes. Section 3003 requires 
        a mandatory conveyance of the Oak Flat area regardless of the 
        findings resulting from the environmental review process. The 
        mining project will require significant amounts of water that 
        will likely affect the local hydrology, including the 
        underlying aquifer, and will result in polluted water that will 
        seep into drinking water supplies.
            (9) The inclusion of section 3003 in the Carl Levin and 
        Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act 
        for Fiscal Year 2015 sets negative precedent for legislative 
        process and for Federal Indian policy.

SEC. 3. REPEAL OF THE SOUTHEAST ARIZONA LAND EXCHANGE AND CONSERVATION.

    Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon 
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 
539p) is repealed.