Brief

H.R. 513 rescinds eight identified presidential withdrawals of unleased OCS lands and rewrites OCSLA section 12(a) to limit any future presidential withdrawal to small, time-limited tracts supported by recent resource and economic analyses and subject to an expedited congressional disapproval vote. It also prevents withdrawals that overlap scheduled lease-sale areas in the approved five-year program. 

Core Provisions

Section 2 nullifies the specified memoranda and executive-order provisions covering areas in the Arctic, Northern Bering Sea, Atlantic canyons, and the Gulf, Atlantic, and Pacific, as listed in the bill. Section 3 amends OCSLA 12(a) to require the President to transmit any withdrawal to congressional leaders and to impose quantitative limits: no more than 150,000 acres per withdrawal, not contiguous with any other such withdrawal, no longer than 20 years, and a cumulative presidential cap of 500,000 acres without congressional approval. A withdrawal may not proceed unless the Secretary of the Interior has completed, within the prior five years, a geophysical and geological mineral resource assessment of the lands; Interior, in consultation with Commerce, Energy, Defense, and Agriculture, has completed an assessment of economic, energy, and national security value of the mineral deposits identified; and Interior has completed an assessment of the expected reduction in future federal revenues to the Treasury, to States including Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act allocations, and to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and Historic Preservation Fund. The Secretary must submit a report containing those results to the House Committees on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Armed Services, Energy and Commerce, and Foreign Affairs, and to the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Armed Services, Energy and Natural Resources, and Foreign Relations. 

The bill creates an expedited joint-resolution process for congressional disapproval. The joint resolution text is prescribed to state that “Congress disapproves the withdrawal made under section 12(a)(1) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act on [date], relating to [area], and such withdrawal shall have no force or effect.” It sets referral and discharge rules, limits Senate debate to ten hours, prescribes final-passage procedures, governs action when the other House has acted first, sets veto-message debate time, and specifies that, upon enactment of a disapproval, the withdrawal does not take effect or continue. It also prohibits the issuance of a substantially similar withdrawal unless specifically authorized by a later law, and it bars judicial review of determinations under the disapproval paragraph. The bill requires any covered agency action subject to these procedures to be submitted to Congress with the text, a concise summary, and the action date, and it defines when submission occurs and how notice is to be recorded in the Congressional Record. Finally, it provides that the President may not make a withdrawal that conflicts with areas included in a lease sale scheduled under an approved five-year leasing program. 

Implications

Agencies would need to complete detailed resource, economic, and revenue-loss analyses before any withdrawal and to transmit the findings to eight committees across both chambers. Congress would gain a time-certain pathway to disapprove a withdrawal, and presidents would face narrow acreage, duration, and cumulative limits absent legislative approval. States and revenue-sharing funds are placed within the required revenue-impact assessment. Lessees and prospective bidders gain protection for lease-sale areas already scheduled in the five-year program. 

Key Takeaways

  • Rescinds eight specified withdrawals of unleased OCS lands. 
  • Caps any new presidential withdrawal at 150,000 acres, non-contiguous, and no longer than 20 years, with a 500,000-acre cumulative cap absent congressional approval. 
  • Conditions withdrawals on recent resource, economic, security, and revenue-loss assessments and a report to designated House and Senate committees. 
  • Establishes an expedited joint-resolution process for congressional disapproval, blocks substantially similar reissuance after disapproval, and bars judicial review of determinations under that paragraph. 
  • Bars withdrawals that conflict with areas scheduled in an approved five year leasing program.