Save Oak Flat Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 915 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. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 23, 2021 Mr. SANDERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources A BILL 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Save Oak Flat Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5 Congress finds as follows: 6 (1) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard 7 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 8 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) author- 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 915 IS izes Oak Flat, which is sacred to Indian Tribes in 1 the region and is part of the larger Chı´’chil 2 Bi5dagoteel Traditional Cultural Property listed in 3 the National Register of Historic Places, to be 4 transferred to Resolution Copper. 5 (2) Resolution Copper plans to hold Oak Flat 6 privately for a mining project that will— 7 (A) result in the physical destruction of 8 Tribal sacred areas and deprive American Indi- 9 ans from practicing their religious ceremonies 10 and other traditional practices; 11 (B) create significant negative environ- 12 mental impacts by destroying Oak Flat and de- 13 pleting and contaminating precious water re- 14 sources; and 15 (C) require significant quantities of water, 16 which will— 17 (i) likely affect the local hydrology, in- 18 cluding the underlying aquifer; and 19 (ii) result in polluted water that will 20 seep into drinking water supplies. 21 (3)(A) Once Resolution Copper owns Oak Flat, 22 Resolution Copper plans to use the highly destruc- 23 tive block cave mining method to remove 1 cubic 24 mile of ore that (as of the date of enactment of this 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 915 IS Act) is located 7,000 feet beneath the surface of the 1 earth without replacing any of the earth removed, 2 because that is the cheapest form of mining. 3 (B) Resolution Copper admits that the surface 4 of Oak Flat will subside and ultimately collapse, de- 5 stroying forever the Tribal sacred areas described in 6 paragraph (2)(A). 7 (4) The Tonto National Forest in which Oak 8 Flat is located was established in 1905 from the an- 9 cestral homelands of American Indians, who were 10 forcibly removed at gunpoint from Oak Flat and 11 other areas of the Forest by the Army during the 12 1880s and held as prisoners of war until the early 13 1900s. 14 (5)(A) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and 15 Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Au- 16 thorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 17 539p)— 18 (i) was included in that Act without proper 19 legislative process, in a manner that cir- 20 cumvented the will of the majority of Members 21 of Congress; and 22 (ii) was originally introduced in the House 23 of Representatives as H.R. 687 and in the Sen- 24 ate as S. 339 during the 113th Congress. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 915 IS (B) H.R. 687 was— 1 (i) brought to the floor of the House of 2 Representatives for consideration twice; and 3 (ii) pulled from consideration each time. 4 (C) S. 339 was never considered— 5 (i) by the Senate; or 6 (ii) for mark-up by the Committee on En- 7 ergy and Natural Resources of the Senate. 8 (D) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and How- 9 ard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authoriza- 10 tion Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) was 11 included in that Act without majority support from 12 either the House of Representatives or the Senate. 13 (E) A proposed amendment to remove that sec- 14 tion was not allowed to be considered before passage 15 of the bill. 16 (6)(A) Indian Tribes have— 17 (i) ceded or had taken from the Tribes mil- 18 lions of acres of land to help build the United 19 States; and 20 (ii) suffered under Federal assimilationist 21 policies that sought to destroy Tribal cultures. 22 (B) Despite those policies, American Indians 23 continue to practice their religions as they have done 24 for thousands of years. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 915 IS (C) American Indian places of worship, or sa- 1 cred areas, are often land-based, including moun- 2 tains, streams, and trees. 3 (D) As a result of previous Federal land poli- 4 cies that resulted in the significant loss of land of 5 Indian Tribes, many sacred areas of the Tribes are 6 currently located on Federal land. 7 (7)(A) The United States has a trust responsi- 8 bility acknowledged by Congress to protect Tribal 9 sacred areas on Federal land, including pursuant to 10 laws requiring meaningful consultation with affected 11 Indian Tribes before making decisions that will im- 12 pact American Indians; but 13 (B) in contradiction to those laws, section 3003 14 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon 15 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 16 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) requires the mandatory con- 17 veyance of a Tribal sacred area located on Federal 18 land, regardless of the outcome of consultation with 19 affected Indian Tribes. 20 (8) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard 21 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 22 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)— 23 (A) was strongly opposed by Indian Tribes 24 throughout the United States because that sec- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 915 IS tion establishes a dangerous legislative prece- 1 dent for the lack of protection of Tribal sacred 2 areas located on Federal land by mandating the 3 conveyance of Federal land with significant reli- 4 gious, cultural, historic, and anthropological 5 significance for Indian Tribes to a private com- 6 pany that will destroy the land; 7 (B) circumvents standard environmental 8 review procedures that ensure that the public 9 interest is protected, including the interests of 10 Indian Tribes; and 11 (C) requires a mandatory conveyance of 12 Oak Flat, regardless of the findings resulting 13 from the environmental review process. 14 (9) The inclusion in the Carl Levin and Howard 15 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 16 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 of section 3003 of that Act 17 (16 U.S.C. 539p) establishes a negative precedent 18 for— 19 (A) the legislative process; and 20 (B) Federal Indian policy. 21 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 22 In this Act: 23 (1) OAK FLAT.—The term ‘‘Oak Flat’’ means 24 the approximately 2,422 acres of Forest Service land 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 915 IS in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern Ari- 1 zona commonly known as ‘‘Oak Flat’’ and generally 2 depicted as ‘‘Oak Flat Withdrawal Area’’ on the 3 map entitled ‘‘Save Oak Flat Act of 2021’’ and 4 dated March 15, 2021. 5 (2) RESOLUTION COPPER.—The term ‘‘Resolu- 6 tion Copper’’ means Resolution Copper Mining, 7 LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. 8 SEC. 4. REPEAL AND WITHDRAWAL. 9 (a) REPEAL.—Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and 10 Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authoriza- 11 tion Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) is re- 12 pealed. 13 (b) WITHDRAWAL.—Subject to valid rights in exist- 14 ence on the date of enactment of this Act, Oak Flat is 15 withdrawn from all forms of— 16 (1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the 17 public land laws; 18 (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining 19 laws; and 20 (3) disposition under all laws pertaining to min- 21 eral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Apr 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S915.IS S915 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS