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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1813

To establish a Minerals Management Service within the Department of the

Interior, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 9, 1995

Mr. EHRLICH (for himself and Mr. RADANOVICH) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Resources

A BILL

To establish a Minerals Management Service within the

Department of the Interior, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Minerals Management

5 Service Organic Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that:

8 (1) The Outer Continental Shelf currently produces roughly 1 9 ⁄4 of our supply of natural gas and

1 10 ⁄8 of domestically produced oil.
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1 (2) Because of the large resource potential of

2 the Outer Continental Shelf, the importance of its

3 oil and natural gas production is expected to grow.

4 (3) The Minerals Management Service was cre5 ated in 1982 following a recommendation of the

6 Commission on Fiscal Accountability to the effect

7 that consolidating mineral revenue collection and off8 shore minerals management in a single agency would

9 result in better management of the Nation’s offshore

10 mineral resources.

11 (4) The Minerals Management Service has ma12 tured into an agency that possesses the requisite

13 technical and administrative skills to manage the

14 Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas properly and ef15 ficiently.

16 (5) The Minerals Management Service has

17 great institutional knowledge about the program and

18 about the industry that has built up around it.

19 (6) The Minerals Management Service routinely

20 collects revenue in excess of $5,000,000,000 per

21 year that is deposited to the General Fund of the

22 Treasury. Some of these receipts are shared with

23 coastal States and some are transferred to the Land

24 and Water Conservation Fund that benefits all 50

25 States.
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1 (7) Because the energy resources of the Outer

2 Continental Shelf belong to the whole Nation and

3 are of national significance, strong unified manage4 ment of the sort provided by the Minerals Manage5 ment Service is required.

6 (8) Disruption of the program by making radi7 cal changes in the way it is managed could tend to

8 discourage needed new investment in further Outer

9 Continental Shelf exploration and development

10 projects and cause that investment to be made else11 where.

12 (9) The orderly and highly productive develop13 ment of the energy resources in the Central and

14 Western Gulf of Mexico planning areas clearly dem15 onstrate the Minerals Management Service’s ability

16 to manage Outer Continental Shelf resources and

17 collect the revenue those resources produce in a pro18 fessional and efficient manner.

19 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF MINERALS MANAGEMENT

20 SERVICE.

21 There is established in the Department of the Inte22 rior a service to be called the Minerals Management Serv23 ice, which shall be under the charge of a Director who

24 shall report to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Min25 erals Management. The Director shall be appointed by the
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1 President, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen2 ate, and shall be compensated at the rate provided for

3 Level V of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of

4 title 5 of the United States Code. The Director shall be

5 appointed on the basis of professional competence and ca6 pacity to administer the provisions of this Act. There shall

7 also be in said service such subordinate officers, clerks,

8 and employees as may be appropriated for by Congress.

9 The service thus established shall promote and regulate

10 the use of lands on the Outer Continental Shelf for pur11 poses of energy and mineral resources exploration, produc12 tion, and development, and shall administer a program re13 sponsible for the timely and accurate collection, distribu14 tion, accounting for and auditing of revenues owed by

15 holders of mineral leases on Federal and offshore and In16 dian lands. The service shall administer its functions by

17 such means as are reasonably necessary to carry out the

18 purposes of this Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands

19 Act (43 U.S.C. 1301 et seq.), the Mineral Leasing Act

20 (30 U.S.C. 181–287), and the Federal Oil and Gas Roy21 alty Management Act (30 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), and all

22 other applicable Federal laws.

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