CLAIM Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The CLAIM Act replaces a flat hardrock mining claim maintenance fee with a proximity-based fee schedule: 1100 dollars for claims inside covered areas, 1000 dollars within 10 miles, 700 dollars within 20 miles, 500 dollars within 30 miles, and 300 dollars beyond 30 miles. It exempts small miners with no more than 10 claims or sites, no more than 200 acres, under 50000 dollars in annual mineral production, and only casual-use activity. Interior may collect user fees for administration, adjust fees for inflation at least every five years, and use excess maintenance-fee revenue for abandoned mine land work, Tribal historic preservation, state allocations, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the National Parks Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund.
Who Benefits and How
Small casual-use miners benefit from exemption from both the new maintenance fee and assessment-work requirements. Abandoned mine land programs, Tribal historic preservation offices, state governments with mining claims, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and public-land restoration funds benefit if collections exceed Interior administrative needs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Hardrock mining claim holders near National Park System units and national monuments must pay higher annual maintenance fees. Persons subject to the subtitle may also pay Interior user fees. Interior Department administrators must manage proximity-based billing, inflation adjustments, small-miner certifications, and allocation of excess revenue.
Key Provisions
- Requires hardrock mining claim holders to pay covered-area proximity fees from 300 dollars to 1100 dollars per claim or site.
- Provides a small-miner exemption for limited claims, acreage, production income, and casual-use activity.
- Authorizes Interior to collect user fees needed to reimburse federal administrative expenses.
- Directs excess claim-fee revenue to abandoned mine land work, Tribal historic preservation, state allocations, conservation funding, and public-land restoration.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Raises hardrock mining claim maintenance fees near protected public lands, exempts small casual-use miners, authorizes Interior user fees, and redirects excess collections to conservation and restoration funds.
Key Policy Areas
Energy, Environment, Tribal Nations, State & Local Government
Primary Purpose
Raises hardrock mining claim maintenance fees near protected public lands, exempts small casual-use miners, authorizes Interior user fees, and redirects excess collections to conservation and restoration funds.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- small miners
- Tribal Historic Preservation Program
- state governments
- Land and Water Conservation Fund
Identified Costs
- hardrock mining claim holders
- Interior Department administrators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMs. Stansbury (for herself and Mr. Huffman) introduced the following …
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Interior Department accounting staff, Interior Department mining-law administrators, United States Treasury recovering mining administration costs
Positive-direction: United States Treasury recovering mining administration costs
Negative-direction: Interior Department accounting staff, Interior Department mining-law administrators
hardrock mineral claim holders subject to covered-area definitions, hardrock mineral users paying administrative fees, hardrock mining claim holders near covered public lands
Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program, Land and Water Conservation Fund, National Parks Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund
small miners qualifying for statutory exemption, small miners using casual-use claims
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Secretary"
- → Secretary of the Interior
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A person or related parties with not more than 10 claims or sites, not more than 200 acres, less than 50000 dollars in annual mineral production, and only casual-use activity.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology