II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2440 

To expand and extend the program to improve permit coordination by the 

Bureau of Land Management, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 5, 2014 

Mr. UDALL of New Mexico (for himself, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. 

HOEVEN, Mr. ENZI, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. HELLER, Mr. WALSH, 

Mr. INHOFE, and Ms. HEITKAMP) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources 

A BILL 

To expand and extend the program to improve permit coordination by the Bureau of Land Management, 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 ‘‘BLM Permit Proc5 essing Improvement Act of 2014’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROGRAM TO IMPROVE FEDERAL PERMIT COORDI2 NATION. 

3 Section 365 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 

4 U.S.C. 15924) is amended— 

5 (1) in the section heading, by striking 

6 ‘‘PILOT’’; 

7 (2) by striking ‘‘Pilot Project’’ each place it ap8 pears and inserting ‘‘Project’’; 

9 (3) in subsection (b)(2), by striking ‘‘Wyoming, 

10 Montana, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico’’ and in11 serting ‘‘the States in which Project offices are lo12 cated’’; 

13 (4) in subsection (d)— 

14 (A) in the subsection heading, by striking 

15 ‘‘PILOT’’; and 

16 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

17 ‘‘(8) Any other State, district, or field office of 

18 the Bureau of Land Management determined by the 

19 Secretary.’’; 

20 (5) by striking subsection (e) and inserting the 

21 following: 

22 ‘‘(e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than Feb23 ruary 1 of the first fiscal year beginning after the date 

24 of enactment of the BLM Permit Processing Improvement 

25 Act of 2014 and each February 1 thereafter, the Secretary 

26 shall report to the Chairman and ranking minority MemVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:57 Jun 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2440.IS S2440

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1 ber of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

2 of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources 

3 of the House of Representatives, which shall include— 

4 ‘‘(1) the allocation of funds to each Project of5 fice for the previous fiscal year; and 

6 ‘‘(2) the accomplishments of each Project office 

7 relating to the coordination and processing of oil and 

8 gas use authorizations during that fiscal year.’’; 

9 (6) in subsection (h), by striking paragraph (6) 

10 and inserting the following: 

11 ‘‘(6) the States in which Project offices are lo12 cated.’’; 

13 (7) by striking subsection (i); and 

14 (8) by redesignating subsection (j) as sub15 section (i). 

16 SEC. 3. BLM OIL AND GAS PERMIT PROCESSING FEE. 

17 Section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 

18 191) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(d) BLM OIL AND GAS PERMIT PROCESSING

20 FEE.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

22 provision of law, for each of fiscal years 2016 

23 through 2026, the Secretary, acting through the Di24 rector of the Bureau of Land Management, shall colVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:57 Jun 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2440.IS S2440

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1 lect a fee for each new application for a permit to 

2 drill that is submitted to the Secretary. 

3 ‘‘(2) AMOUNT.—The amount of the fee shall be 

4 $9,500 for each new application, as indexed for 

5 United States dollar inflation from October 1, 2015 

6 (as measured by the Consumer Price Index). 

7 ‘‘(3) USE.—Of the fees collected under this 

8 subsection for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

9 transfer— 

10 ‘‘(A) for each of fiscal years 2016 through 

11 2019— 

12 ‘‘(i) 15 percent to the field offices that 

13 collected the fees and used to process pro14 tests, leases, and permits under this Act, 

15 subject to appropriation; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) 85 percent to the BLM Permit 

17 Processing Improvement Fund established 

18 under subsection (c)(2)(B) (referred to in 

19 this subsection as the ‘Fund’); and 

20 ‘‘(B) for each of fiscal years 2020 through 

21 2026, all of the fees to the Fund. 

22 ‘‘(4) ADDITIONAL COSTS.—During each of fis23 cal years of 2016 through 2026, the Secretary shall 

24 not implement a rulemaking that would enable an 


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1 increase in fees to recover additional costs related to 

2 processing applications for permits to drill.’’. 

3 SEC. 4. BLM PERMIT PROCESSING IMPROVEMENT FUND. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 35(c) of the Mineral 

5 Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191(c)) is amended by striking 

6 paragraph (3) and inserting the following: 

7 ‘‘(3) USE OF FUND.— 

8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Fund shall be 

9 available to the Secretary of the Interior for ex10 penditure, without further appropriation and 

11 without fiscal year limitation, for the coordina12 tion and processing of oil and gas use author13 izations on onshore Federal land. 

14 ‘‘(B) ACCOUNTS.—The Secretary shall di15 vide the Fund into— 

16 ‘‘(i) a Rental Account (referred to in 

17 this subsection as the ‘Rental Account’) 

18 comprised of rental receipts collected under 

19 this section; and 

20 ‘‘(ii) a Fee Account (referred to in 

21 this subsection as the ‘Fee Account’) com22 prised of fees collected under subsection 

23 (d). 

24 ‘‘(4) RENTAL ACCOUNT.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

2 use the Rental Account for— 

3 ‘‘(i) the coordination and processing 

4 of oil and gas use authorizations on on5 shore Federal land under the jurisdiction 

6 of the Project offices identified under sec7 tion 365(d) of the Energy Policy Act of 

8 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15924(d)); and 

9 ‘‘(ii) training programs for develop10 ment of expertise related to coordinating 

11 and processing oil and gas use authoriza12 tions. 

13 ‘‘(B) ALLOCATION.—In determining the al14 location of the Rental Account among Project 

15 offices for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall con16 sider— 

17 ‘‘(i) the number of applications for 

18 permit to drill received in a Project office 

19 during the previous fiscal year; 

20 ‘‘(ii) the backlog of applications de21 scribed in clause (i) in a Project office; 

22 ‘‘(iii) publicly available industry fore23 casts for development of oil and gas re24 sources under the jurisdiction of a Project 

25 office; and 


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1 ‘‘(iv) any opportunities for partner2 ship with local industry organizations and 

3 educational institutions in developing train4 ing programs to facilitate the coordination 

5 and processing of oil and gas use author6 izations. 

7 ‘‘(5) FEE ACCOUNT.— 

8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

9 use the Fee Account for the coordination and 

10 processing of oil and gas use authorizations on 

11 onshore Federal land. 

12 ‘‘(B) ALLOCATION.—The Secretary shall 

13 transfer not less than 75 percent of the reve14 nues collected by an office for the processing of 

15 applications for permits to the State office of 

16 the State in which the fees were collected.’’. 

17 (b) INTEREST ON OVERPAYMENT ADJUSTMENT.— 

18 Section 111(h) of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Man19 agement Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1721(h)) is amended in 

20 the first sentence by striking ‘‘the rate’’ and all that fol21 lows through the period at the end of the sentence and 

22 inserting ‘‘a rate equal to the sum of the Federal short23 term rate determined under section 6621(b) of the Inter24 nal Revenue Code of 1986 plus 1 percentage point.’’. 


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1 SEC. 5. BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 

2 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 

3 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go-Act of 2010, 

4 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 

5 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 

6 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 

7 by the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, pro8 vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 

9 vote on passage. 

Æ 


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