I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4749 
To suspend the application of any provision of Federal law under which 
persons are relieved from the requirement to pay royalties for production 
of oil or natural gas from Federal lands in periods of high oil and 
natural gas prices, to require the Secretary to seek to renegotiate existing 
oil and natural gas leases to similarly limit suspension of royalty obliga-
tions under such leases, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 14, 2006 
Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, 
Mr. EMANUEL, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. PALLONE, and Mr. 
GRIJALVA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Resources 
A BILL 
To suspend the application of any provision of Federal law 
under which persons are relieved from the requirement 
to pay royalties for production of oil or natural gas 
from Federal lands in periods of high oil and natural 
gas prices, to require the Secretary to seek to renegotiate 
existing oil and natural gas leases to similarly limit sus-
pension of royalty obligations under such leases, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Royalty Relief for 
American Consumers Act of 2006’’. 
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO SUSPEND ROYALTY RELIEF. 
(a) REQUIREMENT TO SUSPEND.—The Secretary of 
the Interior shall suspend the application of any provision 
of Federal law under which any person is given relief from 
any requirement to pay royalty for production oil or nat-
ural gas from Federal lands (including submerged lands), 
for production occurring in any period after the date of 
the enactment of this Act with respect to which— 
(1) in the case of production of oil, the average 
price of crude oil in the United States over the most 
recent 4 consecutive weeks is greater than $34.71 
per barrel; and 
(2) in the case of production of natural gas, the 
average wellhead price of natural gas in the United 
States over the most recent 4 consecutive weeks is 
greater than $4.34 per thousand cubic feet. 
(b) DETERMINATION OF MARKET PRICE.—The Sec-
retary shall determine average prices for purposes of sub-
section (a) based on the most recent data reported by the 
Energy Information Administration of the Department of 
Energy.
SEC. 3. RENEGOTIATION OF EXISTING LEASES. 
(a) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary of the Interior 
shall seek to renegotiate each existing lease authorizing 
production of oil or natural gas on Federal land (including 
submerged land) that was issued by the Department of 
the Interior before the date of the enactment of this Act 
as necessary to modify the terms of such lease to ensure 
that any suspension of a requirement to pay royalties 
under such lease does not apply to production referred to 
in section 2(a). 
(b) FAILURE TO RENEGOTIATE AND MODIFY.—After 
the end of the 1-year period beginning on the date of the 
enactment of this Act, a person who is a lessee under an 
existing lease referred to in subsection (a) shall not be eli-
gible to enter into any new lease that authorizes produc-
tion of oil or natural gas on Federal land (including sub-
merged land), and shall not be eligible to obtain by sale 
or other transfer any lease issued before the end of such 
period, unless such person renegotiates such existing lease 
and enters into an agreement with the Secretary that 
modifies the terms of the existing lease as provided in sub-
section (a). 
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