House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today praised the Senate for its bipartisan approval of the Carl Levin & Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, which included a bipartisan agreement (Title 30) on provisions under the jurisdiction of the House Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. The bill will now go to President Obama to be signed into law.
“I commend my colleagues in the Senate for working with us in a bipartisan fashion to advance a number of important public land measures that will promote job creation and economic growth,” said Chairman Hastings. “Included in this agreement are nearly three dozen House-passed suspension bills that had languished in the Senate. Our ability to come together and send these bills to the President’s desk represents a win for our country and for the communities throughout the West that will benefit from these measures.”
Key Highlights:
Boosts new oil and natural gas production on federal lands by reducing permit delays, providing regulatory certainty to American job creators, preventing the Obama Administration from increasing costs, and extending a successful pilot program that helps the BLM deal with a backlog of drilling permit applications.
Allows for opening up the third largest undeveloped copper resource in the world – supporting nearly 3,700 American jobs and producing enough copper to meet 25 percent of current U.S. demand.
Reduces grazing permit backlogs and adds needed certainty to America’s ranching community.
Updates fee structure to provide predictable, fair rates so families are not forced to tear down cabins they own in national forests. Supported by the National Forest Homeowners.
Provides for over 110,000 acres of land to be conveyed out of federal ownership to be utilized for economic development (including mineral production, timber production, infrastructure projects) and community development (ie, local cemetery, shooting range).
Releases 26,000 acres of current wilderness study areas, which unlocks lands to be used for multiple beneficial purposes, including economic development and recreation.
Designates approximately 245,000 acres of wilderness in specific areas with strong local and Congressional support. Nearly half of those acres are already managed as if it were wilderness due to its current status as a roadless or wilderness study area.
Supports America’s National Parks by providing new means of enhancing private funding (through donor recognition and the issuance of a commemorative coin to recognize the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016).
Ensures that no private property can be condemned in land designations.
To learn more about the natural resources provisions passed as part of NDAA, click here.
