To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to provide for the payment of bonus payments of certain coal leases issued under that Act.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill amends the Mineral Leasing Act to place a ten-year payment schedule in statute for coal leases awarded under a deferred bonus payment system. A successful bidder would pay the total bonus in ten equal annual installments, with the first tenth submitted with the bid.
Current Bureau of Land Management regulations generally require five equal installments, including the first payment with the bid and four payments on the lease anniversaries. The bill would replace that schedule for covered leases with ten equal annual installments. It changes payment timing, not the winning bid amount, fair-market-value requirement, annual rent, production royalty, environmental review, lease qualifications, or competitive award process.
Existing law makes unpaid bonus amounts immediately due when a lease is canceled or defaults and can terminate a lease after an installment remains unpaid following notice. The bill does not expressly repeal those protections, guarantee a lease, forgive a payment, provide an interest subsidy, or appropriate money. Its central effect is to lower the amount due in each installment and delay federal receipt of most of the bonus.
Who Benefits and How
Successful federal coal bidders gain longer financing and smaller annual bonus installments, which can preserve working capital during mine planning and development. Coal operators and their lenders may find a lease easier to finance, and additional bidders may be able to compete for a deferred-payment tract. Contractors and coal-dependent communities could benefit if the schedule enables development that otherwise would not proceed.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Treasury, mineral-revenue recipients, and states receiving shares of federal mineral receipts wait longer for bonus revenue. The government carries payment and default exposure for more years. BLM and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue must revise lease-sale terms, billing systems, and compliance procedures. Competing land uses and communities affected by coal development may bear additional impacts if the financing change increases leasing or production.
Key Provisions
- Requires ten equal annual bonus installments.
- Requires the first installment with the lease bid.
- Extends the current five-installment regulatory schedule.
- Applies to deferred-payment federal coal leases.
- Preserves the total nominal bonus obligation.
- Preserves competitive bidding and fair-market-value rules.
- Preserves rent and production royalty obligations.
- Preserves unpaid-balance consequences after default or cancellation.
- Provides no lease guarantee or payment forgiveness.
- Provides no new appropriation or direct subsidy.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires every deferred bonus payment for a federal coal lease issued under the Mineral Leasing Act to be paid in ten equal annual installments, with the first installment submitted with the lease bid, thereby extending the current regulatory payment schedule without reducing the nominal bonus owed.
Key Policy Areas
Federal Coal Leasing, Mineral Leasing Act, Bonus Bid Payments, Public Land Revenue, Coal Industry Finance
Primary Purpose
Requires every deferred bonus payment for a federal coal lease issued under the Mineral Leasing Act to be paid in ten equal annual installments, with the first installment submitted with the lease bid, thereby extending the current regulatory payment schedule without reducing the nominal bonus owed.
Policy Domains
Section 1 ten-installment schedule for deferred federal coal lease bonuses
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Successful federal coal lease bidders
- Coal operators financing mine development
- Lenders financing federal coal leases
- Prospective bidders with limited upfront capital
- Coal contractors serving developed leases
- Coal-dependent communities receiving economic activity
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- United States Treasury awaiting bonus receipts
- States awaiting mineral revenue distributions
- Reclamation accounts awaiting distributed receipts
- Bureau of Land Management lease administrators
- Office of Natural Resources Revenue collectors
- Communities affected by additional coal development
- Federal government bearing longer default exposure
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeSubcommittee Hearings Held
Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Introduced in House
Ms. Hageman introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "bidder"
- → Successful bidder for a deferred-payment federal coal lease
- "lessor"
- → Secretary of the Interior issuing the coal lease
- "collector"
- → Office of Natural Resources Revenue official collecting installments
- "recipient"
- → State or federal account receiving mineral-leasing revenue
- "administrator"
- → Bureau of Land Management official administering the lease sale
Note: {'scope_ids': ['coal_bonus_installments'], 'description': 'The bill stretches the timing of the covered bonus over ten annual payments but does not lower the nominal bid, alter rent or royalties, waive fair-market-value and qualification rules, or displace existing default and cancellation consequences.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The successful bid amount paid for the right to receive a federal coal lease, apart from rent and production royalties.
A system allowing the lease bonus to be paid over time rather than entirely at award.
The first of ten equal annual payments, which must accompany the successful bid.
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