II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1973

To simplify Federal oil and gas revenue distributions, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

NOVEMBER 19, 1999

Mr. BINGAMAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To simplify Federal oil and gas revenue distributions, 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 ‘‘The Mineral Revenue

5 Payments Clarification Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:

8 (1) Subtitle C of title X of the Omnibus Budget

9 Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Public Law 103–66)

10 changed the sharing of onshore mineral revenues

11 and revenues from geothermal steam from a 50:50
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1 split between the Federal Government and the

2 States to a complicated formula that entailed de3 ducting from the State share of leasing revenues ‘‘50

4 percent of the portion of the enacted appropriations

5 of the Department of the Interior and any other

6 agency during the preceding fiscal year allocable to

7 the administration of all laws providing for the leas8 ing of any onshore lands or interest in land owned

9 by the United States for the production of the same

10 types of minerals leasable under this Act or of geo11 thermal steam, and to enforcement of such laws. . . .’’

12 (2) There is no legislative record to suggest a

13 sound public policy rationale for deducting prior14 year administrative expenses from the sharing of

15 current-year receipts, indicating that this change

16 was made primarily for budget scoring reasons.

17 (3) The system put in place by this change in

18 law has proved difficult to administer and has given

19 rise to disputes between the Federal Government

20 and the States as to the nature of allocable ex21 penses. Federal accounting systems have proven to

22 be poorly suited to breaking down administrative

23 costs in the manner required by the law. Different

24 Federal agencies implementing this law have used

25 varying methodologies to identify allocable costs, re-
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1 sulting in an inequitable distribution of costs during

2 fiscal years 1994 through 1996. In November, 1997,

3 the Inspector General of the Department of the In4 terior found that ‘‘the congressionally approved

5 method for cost sharing deductions effective in fiscal

6 year 1997 may not accurately compute the deduc7 tions.’’.

8 (4) Given the lack of a substantive rationale for

9 the 1993 change in law and the complexity and ad10 ministrative burden involved, a return to the sharing

11 formula prior to the enactment of the Omnibus

12 Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 is justified.

13 SEC. 3. AMENDMENT OF THE MINERAL LEASING ACT.

14 Section 35(b) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C.

15 sec. 191(b)) is amended to read as follows:

16 ‘‘(b) In determining the amount of payments to the

17 States under this section, the amount of such payments

18 shall not be reduced by any administrative or other costs

19 incurred by the United States.’’.

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