Save Oak Flat Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 173 To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 17, 2019 Mr. SANDERS (for himself, Mr. WYDEN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. HEINRICH, and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Re- sources A BILL To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015. 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 that— 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 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 173 IS izes the approximately 2,422 acres of Forest Service 1 land in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern 2 Arizona commonly known as ‘‘Oak Flat’’ (referred 3 to in this section as ‘‘Oak Flat’’), which is sacred to 4 Indian Tribes in the region and listed in the Na- 5 tional Register of Historic Places, to be transferred 6 to Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, a Delaware lim- 7 ited liability company (referred to in this section as 8 ‘‘Resolution Copper’’); 9 (2) Resolution Copper plans to hold Oak Flat 10 privately for a mining project that will— 11 (A) result in the physical destruction of 12 Tribal sacred areas and deprive American Indi- 13 ans from practicing their religious ceremonies 14 and other traditional practices; 15 (B) create significant negative environ- 16 mental impacts by destroying Oak Flat and de- 17 pleting and contaminating precious water re- 18 sources; and 19 (C) require significant quantities of water, 20 which will— 21 (i) likely affect the local hydrology, in- 22 cluding the underlying aquifer; and 23 (ii) result in polluted water that will 24 seep into drinking water supplies; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 173 IS (3)(A) once Resolution Copper owns Oak Flat, 1 Resolution Copper plans to use the highly destruc- 2 tive block cave mining method to remove 1 cubic 3 mile of ore that (as of the date of enactment of this 4 Act) is located 7,000 feet beneath the surface of the 5 earth without replacing any of the earth removed, 6 because that is the cheapest form of mining; and 7 (B) Resolution Copper admits that the surface 8 of Oak Flat will subside and ultimately collapse, de- 9 stroying forever the Tribal sacred areas described in 10 paragraph (2)(A); 11 (4) the Tonto National Forest in which Oak 12 Flat is located was established in 1905 from the an- 13 cestral homelands of American Indians, who were 14 forcibly removed at gunpoint from Oak Flat and 15 other areas of the Forest by the Army during the 16 1880s and held as prisoners of war until the early 17 1900s; 18 (5)(A) section 3003 of the Carl Levin and How- 19 ard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authoriza- 20 tion Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)— 21 (i) was included in that Act without proper 22 legislative process, in a manner that cir- 23 cumvented the will of the majority of Members 24 of Congress; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 173 IS (ii) was originally introduced in the House 1 of Representatives as H.R. 687 and in the Sen- 2 ate as S. 339 during the 113th Congress; 3 (B) H.R. 687 was— 4 (i) brought to the floor of the House of 5 Representatives for consideration twice; and 6 (ii) pulled from consideration each time; 7 (C) S. 339 was never considered— 8 (i) by the Senate; or 9 (ii) for mark-up by the Committee on En- 10 ergy and Natural Resources of the Senate; 11 (D) section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard 12 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 13 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) was in- 14 cluded in that Act without majority support from ei- 15 ther the House of Representatives or the Senate; 16 and 17 (E) a proposed amendment to remove that sec- 18 tion was not allowed to be considered before passage 19 of the bill; 20 (6)(A) Indian Tribes have— 21 (i) ceded or had taken from the Tribes mil- 22 lions of acres of land to help build the United 23 States; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 173 IS (ii) suffered under Federal assimilationist 1 policies that sought to destroy Tribal cultures; 2 (B) despite those policies, American Indians 3 continue to practice their religions as they have done 4 for thousands of years; 5 (C) American Indian places of worship, or sa- 6 cred areas, are often land-based, including moun- 7 tains, streams, and trees; and 8 (D) as a result of previous Federal land policies 9 that resulted in the significant loss of land of Indian 10 Tribes, many sacred areas of the Tribes are cur- 11 rently located on Federal land; 12 (7)(A) the United States has a trust responsi- 13 bility acknowledged by Congress to protect Tribal 14 sacred areas on Federal land, including pursuant to 15 laws requiring meaningful consultation with affected 16 Indian Tribes before making decisions that will im- 17 pact American Indians; but 18 (B) in contradiction to those laws, section 3003 19 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon 20 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 21 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) requires the mandatory con- 22 veyance of a Tribal sacred area located on Federal 23 land, regardless of the outcome of consultation with 24 affected Indian Tribes; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 173 IS (8) section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard 1 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 2 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)— 3 (A) was strongly opposed by Indian Tribes 4 throughout the United States because that sec- 5 tion establishes a dangerous legislative prece- 6 dent for the lack of protection of Tribal sacred 7 areas located on Federal land by mandating the 8 conveyance of Federal land with significant reli- 9 gious, cultural, historic, and anthropological 10 significance for Indian Tribes to a private com- 11 pany that will destroy the land; 12 (B) circumvents standard environmental 13 review procedures that ensure that the public 14 interest is protected, including the interests of 15 Indian Tribes; and 16 (C) requires a mandatory conveyance of 17 Oak Flat, regardless of the findings resulting 18 from the environmental review process; and 19 (9) the inclusion in the Carl Levin and Howard 20 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 21 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 of section 3003 of that Act 22 (16 U.S.C. 539p) establishes a negative precedent 23 for— 24 (A) the legislative process; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 173 IS (B) Federal Indian policy. 1 SEC. 3. REPEAL OF SOUTHEAST ARIZONA LAND EXCHANGE 2 AND CONSERVATION PROVISION. 3 Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. 4 ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for 5 Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) is repealed. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Jan 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S173.IS S173 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS