Save Oak Flat Act
Bill: S.915 | Sponsor: Sen. Sanders, Bernard (I-VT)
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources

Summary:
Save Oak Flat Act
This bill repeals the requirement for the Department of Agriculture to convey the 2,422 acres of Forest Service land located in Tonto National Forest in Pinal County, Arizona, known as Oak Flat, to Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, in exchange for various parcels of land owned by Resolution Copper.
Oak Flat is withdrawn from (1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws; (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and (3) disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials.

To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon 
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Save Oak Flat Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
        McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 
        (16 U.S.C. 539p) authorizes Oak Flat, which is sacred to Indian 
        Tribes in the region and is part of the larger Chi'chil 
        Bi5dagoteel Traditional Cultural Property listed in the 
        National Register of Historic Places, to be transferred to 
        Resolution Copper.
            (2) Resolution Copper plans to hold Oak Flat privately for 
        a mining project that will--
                    (A) result in the physical destruction of Tribal 
                sacred areas and deprive American Indians from 
                practicing their religious ceremonies and other 
                traditional practices;
                    (B) create significant negative environmental 
                impacts by destroying Oak Flat and depleting and 
                contaminating precious water resources; and
                    (C) require significant quantities of water, which 
                will--
                            (i) likely affect the local hydrology, 
                        including the underlying aquifer; and
                            (ii) result in polluted water that will 
                        seep into drinking water supplies.
            (3)(A) Once Resolution Copper owns Oak Flat, Resolution 
        Copper plans to use the highly destructive block cave mining 
        method to remove 1 cubic mile of ore that (as of the date of 
        enactment of this Act) is located 7,000 feet beneath the 
        surface of the earth without replacing any of the earth 
        removed, because that is the cheapest form of mining.
            (B) Resolution Copper admits that the surface of Oak Flat 
        will subside and ultimately collapse, destroying forever the 
        Tribal sacred areas described in paragraph (2)(A).
            (4) The Tonto National Forest in which Oak Flat is located 
        was established in 1905 from the ancestral homelands of 
        American Indians, who were forcibly removed at gunpoint from 
        Oak Flat and other areas of the Forest by the Army during the 
        1880s and held as prisoners of war until the early 1900s.
            (5)(A) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. 
        ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
        Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)--
                    (i) was included in that Act without proper 
                legislative process, in a manner that circumvented the 
                will of the majority of Members of Congress; and
                    (ii) was originally introduced in the House of 
                Representatives as H.R. 687 and in the Senate as S. 339 
                during the 113th Congress.
            (B) H.R. 687 was--
                    (i) brought to the floor of the House of 
                Representatives for consideration twice; and
                    (ii) pulled from consideration each time.
            (C) S. 339 was never considered--
                    (i) by the Senate; or
                    (ii) for mark-up by the Committee on Energy and 
                Natural Resources of the Senate.
            (D) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
        McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 
        (16 U.S.C. 539p) was included in that Act without majority 
        support from either the House of Representatives or the Senate.
            (E) A proposed amendment to remove that section was not 
        allowed to be considered before passage of the bill.
            (6)(A) Indian Tribes have--
                    (i) ceded or had taken from the Tribes millions of 
                acres of land to help build the United States; and
                    (ii) suffered under Federal assimilationist 
                policies that sought to destroy Tribal cultures.
            (B) Despite those policies, American Indians continue to 
        practice their religions as they have done for thousands of 
        years.
            (C) American Indian places of worship, or sacred areas, are 
        often land-based, including mountains, streams, and trees.
            (D) As a result of previous Federal land policies that 
        resulted in the significant loss of land of Indian Tribes, many 
        sacred areas of the Tribes are currently located on Federal 
        land.
            (7)(A) The United States has a trust responsibility 
        acknowledged by Congress to protect Tribal sacred areas on 
        Federal land, including pursuant to laws requiring meaningful 
        consultation with affected Indian Tribes before making 
        decisions that will impact American Indians; but
            (B) in contradiction to those laws, section 3003 of the 
        Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense 
        Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) 
        requires the mandatory conveyance of a Tribal sacred area 
        located on Federal land, regardless of the outcome of 
        consultation with affected Indian Tribes.
            (8) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
        McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 
        (16 U.S.C. 539p)--
                    (A) was strongly opposed by Indian Tribes 
                throughout the United States because that section 
                establishes a dangerous legislative precedent for the 
                lack of protection of Tribal sacred areas located on 
                Federal land by mandating the conveyance of Federal 
                land with significant religious, cultural, historic, 
                and anthropological significance for Indian Tribes to a 
                private company that will destroy the land;
                    (B) circumvents standard environmental review 
                procedures that ensure that the public interest is 
                protected, including the interests of Indian Tribes; 
                and
                    (C) requires a mandatory conveyance of Oak Flat, 
                regardless of the findings resulting from the 
                environmental review process.
            (9) The inclusion in the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
        McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 
        of section 3003 of that Act (16 U.S.C. 539p) establishes a 
        negative precedent for--
                    (A) the legislative process; and
                    (B) Federal Indian policy.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Oak flat.--The term ``Oak Flat'' means the 
        approximately 2,422 acres of Forest Service land in the Tonto 
        National Forest in southeastern Arizona commonly known as ``Oak 
        Flat'' and generally depicted as ``Oak Flat Withdrawal Area'' 
        on the map entitled ``Save Oak Flat Act of 2021'' and dated 
        March 15, 2021.
            (2) Resolution copper.--The term ``Resolution Copper'' 
        means Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, a Delaware limited 
        liability company.

SEC. 4. REPEAL AND WITHDRAWAL.

    (a) Repeal.--Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' 
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 
U.S.C. 539p) is repealed.
    (b) Withdrawal.--Subject to valid rights in existence on the date 
of enactment of this Act, Oak Flat is withdrawn from all forms of--
            (1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land 
        laws;
            (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and
            (3) disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and 
        geothermal leasing or mineral materials.
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