Save Oak Flat Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 665 To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 17, 2019 Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. AGUILAR, Mr. JONES, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. KIL- MER, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. PIN- GREE, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. LUJA´N, Mr. COLE, Ms. DELBENE, Mrs. TORRES of Cali- fornia, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. GALLEGO, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mr. RUIZ, Ms. HAALAND, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. LOWENTHAL, and Ms. MOORE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on 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. 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 665 IH (1) 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) author- 3 izes the approximately 2,422 acres of Forest Service 4 land in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern 5 Arizona commonly known as ‘‘Oak Flat’’ (referred 6 to in this section as ‘‘Oak Flat’’), which is sacred to 7 Indian Tribes in the region and is listed on the Na- 8 tional Register of Historic Places, to be transferred 9 to Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, a Delaware lim- 10 ited liability company (referred to in this section as 11 ‘‘Resolution Copper’’); 12 (2) Resolution Copper plans to hold Oak Flat 13 privately for a mining project that will— 14 (A) result in the physical destruction of 15 Tribal sacred areas and deprive American Indi- 16 ans from practicing their religious ceremonies 17 and other traditional practices; 18 (B) create significant negative environ- 19 mental impacts by destroying Oak Flat and de- 20 pleting and contaminating precious water re- 21 sources; and 22 (C) require significant quantities of water, 23 which will— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 665 IH (i) likely affect the local hydrology, in- 1 cluding the underlying aquifer; and 2 (ii) result in polluted water that will 3 seep into drinking water supplies; 4 (3)(A) once Resolution Copper owns Oak Flat, 5 Resolution Copper plans to use the highly destruc- 6 tive block cave mining method to remove 1 cubic 7 mile of ore that (as of the date of enactment of this 8 Act) is located 7,000 feet beneath the surface of the 9 earth without replacing any of the earth removed, 10 because that is the cheapest form of mining; and 11 (B) Resolution Copper admits that the surface 12 of Oak Flat will subside and ultimately collapse, de- 13 stroying forever the Tribal sacred area described in 14 paragraph (2)(A); 15 (4) the Tonto National Forest in which Oak 16 Flat is located was established in 1905 from the an- 17 cestral homelands of American Indians, who were 18 forcibly removed at gunpoint from Oak Flat and 19 other areas of the Forest by the Army during the 20 1880s and imprisoned as prisoners of war until the 21 early 1900s; 22 (5)(A) section 3003 of the Carl Levin and How- 23 ard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authoriza- 24 tion Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 665 IH (i) was included in that Act without proper 1 legislative process, in a manner that cir- 2 cumvented the will of the majority of Members 3 of the House of Representatives and the Sen- 4 ate; and 5 (ii) was originally introduced in the House 6 of Representatives as H.R. 687 and in the Sen- 7 ate as S. 339 during the 113th Congress; 8 (B) H.R. 687 was— 9 (i) brought to the floor of the House of 10 Representatives for consideration twice; and 11 (ii) pulled from consideration each time; 12 (C) S. 339 was never considered— 13 (i) by the Senate; or 14 (ii) for mark-up by the Committee on En- 15 ergy and Natural Resources of the Senate; 16 (D) section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard 17 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 18 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) was in- 19 cluded in that Act without majority support from ei- 20 ther the House of Representatives or the Senate; 21 and 22 (E) a proposed amendment to remove that sec- 23 tion was not allowed to be considered before passage 24 of the bill; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 665 IH (6)(A) Indian Tribes have— 1 (i) ceded or had taken from the Tribes mil- 2 lions of acres of land to help build the United 3 States; and 4 (ii) suffered under Federal assimilationist 5 policies that sought to destroy Tribal cultures; 6 (B) despite those policies, American Indians 7 continue to practice their religions as they have done 8 for thousands of years; 9 (C) American Indian places of worship, or sa- 10 cred areas, are often land-based, including moun- 11 tains, streams, and trees; and 12 (D) as a result of previous Federal land policies 13 that resulted in the significant loss of land of Indian 14 Tribes, many sacred areas of the Tribes are cur- 15 rently located on Federal land; 16 (7)(A) the United States has a trust responsi- 17 bility acknowledged by Congress to protect Tribal 18 sacred areas on Federal land, including pursuant to 19 laws requiring meaningful consultation with affected 20 Indian Tribes before making decisions that will im- 21 pact American Indians; but 22 (B) in contradiction to those laws, section 3003 23 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon 24 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 665 IH 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) requires the mandatory con- 1 veyance of a Tribal sacred area located on Federal 2 land, regardless of the outcome of consultation with 3 affected Indian Tribes; 4 (8) section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard 5 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 6 Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)— 7 (A) was strongly opposed by Indian Tribes 8 throughout the United States because that sec- 9 tion establishes a dangerous legislative prece- 10 dent for the lack of protection of Tribal sacred 11 areas located on Federal land by mandating the 12 conveyance of Federal land with significant reli- 13 gious, cultural, historic, and anthropological 14 significance for Indian Tribes to a private com- 15 pany that will destroy the land; 16 (B) circumvents standard environmental 17 review procedures that ensure that the public 18 interest is protected, including the interests of 19 Indian Tribes; and 20 (C) requires a mandatory conveyance of 21 Oak Flat, regardless of the findings resulting 22 from the environmental review process; and 23 (9) the inclusion in the Carl Levin and Howard 24 P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 665 IH Act for Fiscal Year 2015 of section 3003 of that Act 1 (16 U.S.C. 539p) establishes a negative precedent 2 for— 3 (A) the legislative process; and 4 (B) Federal Indian policy. 5 SEC. 3. REPEAL OF SOUTHEAST ARIZONA LAND EXCHANGE 6 AND CONSERVATION PROVISION. 7 Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. 8 ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for 9 Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) is repealed. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:16 Feb 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H665.IH H665 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS