Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleague, Chairman Westerman, in support of H.R. 7377, the Royalty Resiliency Act, sponsored by my colleague, Representative Hunt. I have to say that not many oil and gas bills can make it through the Natural Resources Committee by unanimous consent and to the floor on suspension, so I commend my colleague for working on this reasonable, technical fix that has the support of the Biden administration. This represents how we should, in fact, get things done, where we come together, where we work things out, and where we include the BLM so that we understand how to get the technical fix done. As noted, under current law, oil and gas lessees who are on land that is partially Federally owned and partially owned by the State or private owners need to get a communitization agreement, or CA, approved by the Department of the Interior, which outlines how much of the royalty payments should be paid to each landowner. While a lessee is waiting for approval on that CA from the Department of the Interior, they pay 100 percent of the royalties to the Federal Government, even in cases where the Federal Government does not own 100 percent of the land. When the CA is finally approved, then the State or private landowners get reimbursed for their share of the royalty payments.…”