I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1115 
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish a deadline 
and other requirements for issuance of drilling permits under that Act, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 16, 2011 
Mr. FLORES (for himself, Mr. LANDRY, Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina, Mr. 
GOHMERT, and Mr. CANSECO) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to estab-
lish a deadline and other requirements for issuance of 
drilling permits under that Act, 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 ‘‘Expedited Offshore 
Permitting Act of 2011’’. 
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SEC. 2. DEADLINE AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS FOR 
ISSUANCE OF OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF 
DRILLING PERMITS. 
Section 11(d) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 
Act (43 U.S.C. 1340) is amended by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after 
‘‘(d)’’, and by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(2)(A) The Secretary shall approve or disapprove 
any application for a permit for drilling a well under an 
approved exploration or development plan for an oil and 
gas lease, or any application to amend a previously ap-
proved permit under such a lease, within 30 days after 
its submission, except that the Secretary may disapprove 
such application only upon a determination that— 
‘‘(i) any proposed activity under the permit 
would result in any condition described in section 
5(a)(2)(A)(i); and 
‘‘(ii) such proposed activity cannot be modified 
to avoid such condition. 
‘‘(B) The Secretary may request additional informa-
tion from the applicant prior to approving or disapproving 
such application, but the request for additional informa-
tion must be received by the applicant within 30 days after 
submission of the application to the Secretary. Upon re-
ceipt of the additional information requested by the Sec-
retary, the Secretary shall approve or disapprove the ap-
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plication within 15 days in accordance with this sub-
section. 
‘‘(C) If the Secretary disapproves a permit applica-
tion or an amended permit application pursuant to this 
subsection, and there is no other well on areas subject to 
the applicable leases capable of production in paying quan-
tities, within 90 days after receipt of a final disapproval 
decision all record title holders of any of the applicable 
leases may request cancellation of the lease, and within 
60 days after receipt of such cancellation request the Sec-
retary shall pay to the record title holders the amount of 
any bonus bid paid for such lease plus interest from the 
date or dates that the bonus bids were paid by the record 
title holders. The Secretary shall make such payment from 
amounts that otherwise would be credited to miscellaneous 
receipts pursuant to section 9.’’. 
Æ 
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