Lisa Murkowski: “Another matter I bring before this body concerns the policy and politics related to mining law reform. As chairman of…”

“Another matter I bring before this body concerns the policy and politics related to mining law reform. As chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I have been working with Senator Craig and other members of the committee to craft a mining bill that is realistic, that is responsive to change. Many know that the 1872 mining law has been a topic of debate in this body for many years. My good friend from Arkansas has spent many hours suggesting reform. The environmentalists continue to cry for reform. This year in an effort to enact a responsible reform we included several mining law provisions in the budget reconciliation package. What did we send to the President? Specifically, for the first time in history, I repeat, for the first time in history, we required miners to pay a 5-percent royalty. For the first time in history, miners were required to pay a fair market value for patented land, and for the first time in history patented lands used for nonmining purposes would revert back to the Federal Government. Patented land would have to be used for mining. If the land was used for non-mining purposes it would revert back to the Federal Government. For the first time in history we established an abandoned mines land fund to start the process of cleaning up the old abandoned mines and try and address abuses that had taken place in the past.”