IB 

Union Calendar No. 654 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5259 

[Report No. 114–833] 

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to reestablish the Royalty Policy 

Committee in order to further a more consultative process with key 

Federal, State, tribal, environmental, and energy stakeholders, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 17, 2016 

Mr. ZINKE (for himself, Mrs. LUMMIS, Mr. MCKINLEY, Mr. TIPTON, Mr. 

GOSAR, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. WESTERMAN, and Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

NOVEMBER 22, 2016 

Additional sponsors: Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, Mr. 

LAMALFA, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Mr. OLSON, and Mr. PEARCE

NOVEMBER 22, 2016 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 17, 2016] 


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•HR 5259 RH

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to reestablish the 

Royalty Policy Committee in order to further a more 

consultative process with key Federal, State, tribal, environmental, and energy stakeholders, and for other purposes. 


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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 ‘‘Certainty for States and 

5 Tribes Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. RECONSTITUTION OF THE ROYALTY POLICY COM7 MITTEE. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Interior shall, 

9 by not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 

10 of this Act, reconstitute the Royalty Policy Committee as 

11 last chartered on March 26, 2010, except as otherwise pro12 vided in this Act. 

13 (b) CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES.—In reconstituting 

14 the Committee, the Secretary shall make appropriate tech15 nical corrections and updates to the charter of the Com16 mittee, including the following: 

17 (1) Revision of all references to the Minerals 

18 Management Service or Minerals Revenue Manage19 ment so as to refer to the Office of Natural Resources 

20 Revenue. 

21 (2) Revision of the estimated number and fre22 quency of meetings of the Committee to not less than 

23 once each year. 

24 (3) Revision of the non-Federal members of the 

25 Committee to include— 


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1 (A) not fewer than 5 members representing 

2 Governors of States that each receive more than 

3 $10,000,000 annually in royalty revenues from 

4 Federal leases; and 

5 (B) not more than 5 members representing 

6 Indian tribes that are mineral-producing Indian 

7 tribes under— 

8 (i) the Act of May 11, 1938 (commonly 

9 known as the ‘‘Indian Mineral Leasing Act 

10 of 1938’’) (25 U.S.C. 396a et seq.); 

11 (ii) title XXVI of the Energy Policy 

12 Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.); 

13 (iii) the Indian Mineral Development 

14 Act of 1982 (25 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.); or 

15 (iv) any other law relating to mineral 

16 development that is specific to one or more 

17 Indian tribes. 

18 (4) Creation of a subcommittee of the Committee 

19 to be known as the State and Tribal Resources Board, 

20 comprised of designees of States’ Governors and tribes 

21 participating as non-Federal members of the reconsti22 tuted Committee. 


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1 SEC. 3. REVIEW OF REGULATIONS AND POLICIES THE ROY2 ALTY POLICY COMMITTEE ADVISORY ACTIVI3 TIES SHOULD INCLUDE. 

4 (a) CONSULTATION AND REPORT.—Not later than 180 

5 days after the date of the issuance by the Department of 

6 the Interior of any proposed regulation or policy related 

7 to mineral leasing policy for Federal or Indian land for 

8 exploration, development, or production of oil, gas, or coal 

9 (including valuation methodologies and royalty and lease 

10 rates for oil, gas, or coal), and not later than 180 days after 

11 the date of the enactment of this Act with respect to any 

12 proposed regulation of such Department relating to such 

13 policy that is pending as of the date of the enactment of 

14 this Act, the Committee shall— 

15 (1) assess the proposed regulation or policy; and 

16 (2) issue a report that describes the potential im17 pact of the proposed regulation or policy, including 

18 any State and tribal economic impacts described in 

19 subsection (b). 

20 (b) STATE AND TRIBAL IMPACT DETERMINATION.— 

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—Before the date on which any 

22 proposed regulation related to mineral leasing policy 

23 on Federal or Indian land (including valuation meth24 odologies and royalty and lease rates for oil, gas, or 

25 coal) may be issued as a final rule, the State and 

26 Tribal Resources Board shall publish a determination 


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1 of the impact of the regulation on school funding, 

2 public safety, and other essential State or Indian 

3 tribal government services. 

4 (2) DELAY REQUEST.—If the State and Tribal 

5 Resources Board determines that a regulation de6 scribed in paragraph (1) will have a negative State 

7 or tribal budgetary impact, the Secretary shall, upon 

8 request by the Board, grant a delay of 180 days in 

9 the finalization of the regulation for the purposes of 

10 further— 

11 (A) stakeholder consultation; 

12 (B) budgetary review; and 

13 (C) development of a proposal to mitigate 

14 the negative economic impact. 

15 (c) REVISION OF PROPOSED REGULATION.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Before the date on which any 

17 proposed regulation related to mineral leasing policy 

18 on Federal or Indian land (including valuation meth19 odologies and royalty and lease rates for oil, gas, or 

20 coal) is issued as a final rule, the Secretary shall pub21 lish in the Federal Register, in the same docket as 

22 such proposed regulation, a description of the impacts 

23 determined by the Board in the report issued under 

24 subsection (a)(2), the recommendations made by the 

25 Board (if any) for mitigation of negative impacts deVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Nov 22, 2016 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H5259.RH H5259

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1 termined by the Board under subsection (b)(2), and 

2 a clear explanation of why such recommendations of 

3 the Board were or were not incorporated in the final 

4 regulation. 

5 (2) FINAL RULE.—Any final regulation subject 

6 to paragraph (1) must include— 

7 (A) a summary of the report required under 

8 subsection (a)(2); and 

9 (B) a clear explanation of why the rec10 ommendations of that report (including the State 

11 and tribal determination) were or were not taken 

12 into account in the finalization of the regulation. 

13 SEC. 4. SPECIAL REVIEW OF PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRON14 MENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT. 

15 (a) PARTICIPANTS IN PROGRAMMATIC REVIEW.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the pro17 grammatic review of coal leasing as described in sec18 tion 4 of the order of the Secretary of the Interior en19 titled ‘‘Discretionary Programmatic Environmental 

20 Impact Statement to Modernize the Federal Coal Pro21 gram’’, numbered 3338 and dated January 15, 2016, 

22 the Secretary shall confer with, and take into consid23 eration the views of, representatives appointed to the 

24 review board described in paragraph (2). 


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1 (2) REVIEW BOARD.—The Governor of each State 

2 in which more than $10,000,000 in revenue is col3 lected annually by the United States as bonus bids, 

4 royalties, and rentals, and fees for production of coal 

5 under leases of Federal land or Indian land may each 

6 appoint not more than 3 representatives to a review 

7 board for purposes of paragraph (1), at least one of 

8 whom shall be a member of the State and Tribal Re9 sources Board. 

10 (3) DEADLINE.— 

11 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall com12 plete the programmatic review referred to in 

13 paragraph (1) not later than January 15, 2019. 

14 (B) FAILURE TO MEET DEADLINE.—If the 

15 programmatic review is not completed by the 

16 deadline described in subparagraph (A), the pro17 grammatic review shall be considered to be com18 plete as of that deadline. 

19 (b) TERMINATION OF OTHER PROGRAMMATIC RE20 VIEW.—No Federal funds may be used to carry out the pro21 grammatic review of coal leasing as described in subsection 

22 (a)(1) after January 15, 2019. 

23 (c) NO IMPLEMENTATION REQUIREMENT.—Nothing in 

24 this section requires the Secretary to conduct or complete 


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1 the programmatic review of coal leasing as described in sub2 section (a)(1) after January 20, 2017. 

3 (d) TERMINATION OF MORATORIUM.—Effective Janu4 ary 16, 2019— 

5 (1) the pause or moratorium on the issuance of 

6 new Federal coal leases under the Secretarial order 

7 referred to in subsection (a)(1) is terminated; and 

8 (2) that Secretarial order shall have no force or 

9 effect. 

10 SEC. 5. GRANDFATHERING OF COAL LEASES ON APPLICA11 TION AND COAL LEASE MODIFICATIONS. 

12 Nothing in the order of the Secretary of the Interior 

13 entitled ‘‘Discretionary Programmatic Environmental Im14 pact Statement to Modernize the Federal Coal Program’’, 

15 numbered 3338 and dated January 15, 2016, shall be con16 sidered to prohibit or restrict any issuance of a coal lease 

17 on application or coal lease modification, pursuant to sec18 tion 3432 of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations, for which 

19 the Bureau of Land Management has begun its review 

20 under section 102 of the National Environmental Policy 

21 Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332) as of January 15, 2016. 

22 SEC. 6. DEADLINE FOR COAL LEASE SALES AND MODIFICA23 TIONS. 

24 Not later than 1 year after the date on which the Sec25 retary completes the analysis required under section 102 of 


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1 the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 

2 4332) for an application for a coal lease, or an application 

3 for a modification to a coal lease pursuant to subpart 3432 

4 of part 3430 of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations (or 

5 successor regulations), accepted by the Secretary, the Sec6 retary shall conduct the lease sale and issue the lease, or 

7 approve the modification, unless the applicant indicates in 

8 writing that the applicant no longer seeks the lease or modi9 fication to the lease. 


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asabaliauskas on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
Union Calendar No. 654 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5259 

[Report No. 114–833] 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to reestabstakeholders, and for other purposes. Federal, State, tribal, environmental, and energy further a more consultative process with key lish the Royalty Policy Committee in order to 

NOVEMBER 22, 2016 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


asabaliauskas on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS