A bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to repeal a provision relating to the suspension, waiver, or reduction of rents or royalties by the Secretary of the Interior to promote development or operation, to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to limit the authority of the Secretary to reduce or eliminate certain royalties and net profit shares, and for other purposes.

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3488 To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to repeal a provision relating to the suspension, waiver, or reduction of rents or royalties by the Secretary of the Interior to promote development or operation, to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to limit the authority of the Secretary to reduce or eliminate certain royalties and net profit shares, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 12, 2020 Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, and Mr. SANDERS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on En- ergy and Natural Resources A BILL To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to repeal a provision relating to the suspension, waiver, or reduction of rents or royalties by the Secretary of the Interior to promote development or operation, to amend the Outer Conti- nental Shelf Lands Act to limit the authority of the Secretary to reduce or eliminate certain royalties and net profit shares, 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:28 Mar 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3488.IS S3488 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3488 IS SECTION 1. REPEAL OF PROVISION OF THE MINERAL LEAS- 1 ING ACT RELATING TO THE SUSPENSION, 2 WAIVER, OR REDUCTION OF RENTS OR ROY- 3 ALTIES BY THE SECRETARY OF THE INTE- 4 RIOR TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT OR OPER- 5 ATION. 6 (a) REPEAL.—Section 39 of the Mineral Leasing Act 7 (30 U.S.C. 209) is repealed. 8 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 9 (1) Section 8721(b) of title 10, United States 10 Code, is amended by striking ‘‘202–209’’ and insert- 11 ing ‘‘202–208’’. 12 (2) Section 8735(a) of title 10, United States 13 Code, is amended by striking ‘‘202–209’’ and insert- 14 ing ‘‘202–208’’. 15 (3) Section 31(h) of the Mineral Leasing Act 16 (30 U.S.C. 188(h)) is amended by striking ‘‘and the 17 provisions of section 39 of this Act’’. 18 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE SEC- 19 RETARY TO REDUCE OR ELIMINATE CERTAIN 20 ROYALTIES AND NET PROFIT SHARES UNDER 21 THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS 22 ACT. 23 Section 8(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 24 Act (43 U.S.C. 1337(a)) is amended by striking para- 25 graph (3) and inserting the following: 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:28 Mar 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3488.IS S3488 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3488 IS ‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY OF SEC- 1 RETARY TO REDUCE OR ELIMINATE CERTAIN ROYAL- 2 TIES OR NET PROFIT SHARES.—Notwithstanding 3 any other provision of this Act, the Secretary may 4 not reduce or eliminate any royalty or net profit 5 share established under a lease.’’. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:28 Mar 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3488.IS S3488 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS