Public Lands Conservation, Geothermal Permitting, Offshore Decommissioning Bills

Uh, good afternoon and thank you all for being here. We have several bills on the agenda, but first I would like to defer to my friend and colleague from Colorado, uh, the senator from Colorado, Senator Bennett. I know you're in a very tight time frame and I know you have a very important piece of legislation with which you would like to discuss.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, I'm very, very grateful that you, uh, the ranking member and and Senator Heinrich are here today, and thank you for allowing me to to speak uh about an iconic Colorado landscape and the Gunnison Outdoor Rec- Rec- Resources Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that Senator Hickenlooper, Representative Hurd, and I have championed to protect it. The Gunnison Basin is quintessentially Colorado, with spectacular alpine wildflowers, towering peaks, and lush forests. These public lands support a legacy of family ranching, cutting edge, scientific research, and world-class outdoor recreation. They are critical headwaters of the Colorado River, including some of the most productive big game habitat in our state, and are home to a number of at-risk species. Over a decade ago, I stood on the banks of the Slate River in the Gunnison Basin, and promised the local community that if they could agree on a shared vision to protect this landscape I would carry a bill to help make that vision a reality. And they did. Ranchers, conservationists, sportsmen, snowmobilers, dirt bikers, mountain bikers, water users, and local elected offici- officials spent hours, months, many of them as volunteers, poring over maps and walking these lands together to find common ground. And since those initial conversations, we worked with seven counties, in western Colorado, some led by Democrats and some led by Republicans, Colorado's tribes and the general public. These conversations reflect a broad vision for the landscape, bipartisan agreement on common sense solutions and ultimately strong support for the Gunnison Outdoor Resource Prot- Prote- Protection Act, or as we call it, the GORP Act. GORP includes eight different land management designations reflecting the values on this landscape. The legislation does not close any roads or trails, and maintains existing uses of the land. Right now, Colorado is reeling from fires across our state, and I know my colleagues on this dais are incredibly sens- sensitive to the challenges that we're all facing in the Western United States. The Gold Mountain and Elk fires are burning on lands within and adjacent to the Gorp Act. The coalition that developed this legislation anticipated the realities of hot or drier conditions that are driving fires like those and included measures to try to help address them to look ahead to prepare for the future. GORP ensures federal land managers who can continue to fight fires with all the available tools and includes provisions to continue hazardous waste reduction work as evidence of the broad coalition behind this legislation I've brought over two dozen letters of support from local governments, tribes, public land users, and over a hundred local businesses. I'd ask, Mister Chairman, unanimous consent to enter these letters into the record.

Without objection, they are entered.

Thank you, Chairman, and I ask the committee for your support in advancing this legislation. The broad, bipartisan, grassroots consensus that underlies GORP should be a model, I think, for the type of legislation that we champion and pass in the Senate. And thank you very much for your time and, Mister Chairman, thank you again for your kindness in allowing me to kick off this important hearing.

Well, we we appreciate your testimony and your comments, and thank you, and we look forward to hearing from other today, and they will testify as well, but we're grateful for your leadership, Senator Bennet. And so thank all of you for being here. We have uh several bills on the agenda in addition to Senator Bennet's, and look forward to hearing from the witnesses to discuss each of them. And I want to take a brief moment to thank uh Senator Cortez Masto. She's been an incredible partner on this subcommittee, and I'd like to touch on a couple of bills on today's agenda. First is S forty- four ten. It's my bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act. It provides for the deferred payment of bonus bids for coal leases. There has essentially been no new leasing in Wyoming's Powder River Basin since twenty twelve. This is a result of p- the past administration's regulatory attacks and their moratorium on coal mining. As a result, Wyoming coal companies have relied exclusively on mining their current reserves, and they're gonna run out by twenty, thirty-nine or earlier. At the same time, the demand for electricity continues to rise at a dramatic rate. Reliable base load power generated by coal can meet this demand. It's only possible if federal coal is economical to mine. Now, we've stopped malicious regulatory attacks on coal, and we're investing in new power plants and in export infrastructure. The Working Families Tax Cuts Act, also slash federal coal royalties, from twelve and a half percent to seven percent. Still, new leasing lags behind and it's unfairly weighed down by an outdated and burdensome bidding process. To win a lease sale, coal companies must submit sealed bonus bids that equal or exceed an unknown fair market value. Bids that come in less than this unknown magic number are rejected. That means companies must bid high to ensure success and out-compete other bidders as well as above the minimum. Then they need to pay the bonus bid over the next several years. It takes a lease that long to get a permit for a new mine, so they pay the thing off before they even get a permit to mine. So this is all before the lease ever generates any revenue at all. So let me tell you how badly the last administration attacked coal production in the United States. Twenty sixteen, bonus bid payments to the treasury. totaled over three hundred and forty million dollars. Twenty twenty-five bonus payments just totaled six thousand four hundred dollars. Three hundred forty-three million to six thousand dollars. You know, my bill S forty-four ten will change the dec- that decline. It allows bonus bid payment schedules to account for our needlessly burdensome permitting process. It does this by allowing companies to pay their bonus bids over ten years, instead of five. That means that new leases can generate revenue that offsets the costs. Companies must still pay the full value of their bids, and they can simply defer some cost later when their mine actually has some revenue. That makes more financial sense, uh, in the twenty twenty-six economy. So I reject the idea that we need five years to permit a new mine. This committee is currently working to reform the permitting process. In the meantime, this is a crucial step to incentivize mining again, and it will unlock needed Wyoming energy. The other bill I'm pleased to see on the agenda is S forty-five sixty-one, the Close the Gap Act. Uh, it has to do with broad-band applications. This bill directs federal land management agencies to develop regulations to streamline the process for broad-band applications. It also removes barriers to improving existing communications infrastructure. The burdensome and outdated permitting process is causing unnecessary delays in connecting folks across rural America. The National Telecommun- Communications and Information Administration is beginning to distribute funding to states for broadband, equity, access, and deployment, BID projects. It's vital that the permitting process does not hinder the build-out of critical communications infrastructure. My bill is a solution to these challenges and I want to thank Senator Lummis and Senator Curtis for supporting it. I'd also like to thank the witnesses for coming th- today, and look forward to hearing uh for each of your testimonials. Senator Cortes Mesto.

Thank you, Chairman Brasso. Uh, I too feel uh uh uh the opportunity to uh thank you for working with me always on this subcommittee and on committee as well. I also want to thank Chairman Lee and Ranking Member Heinrich for of the full committee for agreeing to hold today's legislative hearing where there's fifteen bills today that we are gonna be hearing. I'd like to talk about a couple of them. One is S forty two hundred. Um, it is an important piece of legislation. for Douglas County in Nevada. It is the Douglas County Economic Development Conservation Act. This is a critical bill for the constituents of Douglas County in my home state of Nevada. I introduced this bill working with Douglas County to improve the management of the Carson Valley floodplain, to enhance stormwater management in this area that has seen repeated devastating floods to promote conservation, to improve public lands management, to protect important tribal cultural sites, and expand limited yet focused economic development opportunities in Douglas County, Nevada. The bill is a culmination of the extensive collaboration between local officials, stretching back to two thousand and nine, with the earliest bill being introduced in twenty thirteen. This bill includes the support of Nevada's entire delegation, including Congressman Mark Amadei in the House, and it also represents the Nevada style of legislating our local land management needs, people together, identifying land use needs and making compromises. It includes support from local government, the local business community, conservationists, including Friends of Nevada Wilderness, uh and the Washoe tribe of Nevada and California. Um, the bill specifically, um, does the following. It conveys sixty-seven acres to the state of Nevada to be managed within the Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park. It conveys seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven acres to the county for local flood control management and recreation, directs the sale of thirty-one acres whose revenue will help fund flood control projects and the purchase of conservation easements to protect the Valley Flood Plain conveys nearly twenty-seven hundred acres of important cultural sites to the Washoe tribe and designates nearly twelve thousand four hundred acres of wilderness that helps preserve prime habitat for by-state sage-grouse populations while releasing a thousand sixty-five acres from the existing wilderness study area. Again, um, Mister Chairman, this is uh this is how we work in Nevada, this compromise, coalitions of people coming together. And for that reason, I'd like to enter into the hearing record letters of support from the Friends of Nevada Wilderness and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.

Without objection, they are admitted.

Thank you. I also want to talk and make a few remarks about the geothermal bills that are on the agenda today. Um, I often speak about um the commitment to an all of the above approach when it comes to energy and in Nevada geothermal energy has the potential to be a crucial part of that approach. It already is showing that. Uh, upon consideration today is is my bill, the Geothermal Ombudsman for National Deployment and Reviews Act, and I thank Senator Risch um for co-leading it with me. This would improve coordination between BLM offices Mm-hmm. and shorten permitting timelines by establishing a geothermal permitting task force, led by an Ombudsman whose role will be to find solutions to geothermal permitting issues on federal lands. But also on the agenda is Congressman Jeff Hurd's Geothermal Energy Advancement Act. It's a bipartisan package of six bills that advanced out of the House unanimously, and contains my Ombudsman bill, as well as the STEAM Act, that I am pleased to be leading with Senator Murkowski, which expedites geothermal permitting within previously studied areas, and gives parity to geothermal development on certain permitting reviews that is already enjoyed by oil and gas projects. Congressman Hurd's geothermal package is also included in the Freedom Act, uh, which uh, a a permitting reform bill that Senator Cott and I have recently introduced. Well, I'm very pleased that today's agenda includes so many pieces of legislation to advance geothermal deployment. I hope we'll be able to take an even deeper and more thorough look at other pending geothermal legislation that falls under the jurisdiction of this committee, including the bill that Senator Murkowski and I have introduced, which is the Next Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act. It creates um an R and D road map for innovative geothermal technologies within the Department of Energy. I look forward to working with my colleagues to fur further advance this legislation. And I thank them again for this hearing.

Well, thank you, Senator Cortes Masto. As Senator Heinrich is ready ready to make his statement, I would ask the people who are here to testify today to please come and find your names at the table and uh please take your seat. So thank you, Senator Heinrich.

Thank you, Chairman Barrasso and Ranking Member Cortes Masto for organizing this legislative hearing. Uh, I'm really excited to have this opportunity to highlight a bill of mine that has been many years in the making. Uh, the Caja del Rio Protection Act is an example of a homegrown legislative product and a representation of a partnership built from common ground. And in this case, the common ground is protection for the Caja del Rio plateau. Uh, the Caja del Rio is one of the Southwest's most culturally significant landscapes, that holds deep importance for land grants, for acequia communities, for livestock permittees, and is vital to a number of tribal communities. And I cannot emphasize enough the level of traditional and cultural value that is held within this landscape. Yet, threats such as desecration of petroglyphs, illegal dumping, and efforts to sell off public lands continue to endanger this plateau. Uh, these threats have united local governments, tribes, traditional histor- historic communities and community organizations of all stripes preserve the shared yet distinct heritages of the region. And as a result, we have the Caja del Rio Protection Act. This bill will create two new stewardship areas, a new special management area on over sixty-seven thousand acres of US Forest Service land, and a new national conservation area on over seventeen thousand acres of Bureau of Land Management land. It will permit traditional uses, like herb and mineral gathering, hunting and livestock grazing, and it will conserve an important wildlife corridor in New Mexico, and preserve one of the most historically intact sections of El Camino Real. It prevents new rights away, giving the land an opportunity to heal in this brittle area, and taken together, these measures will protect the Caja for generations to come. This bill also begins a new chapter in the stewardship of this land, one that includes opportunities for tribes traditional historic communities to have a voice in land management plans. This bill recognizes that stewardship works best when it is shared. I'd like to thank everyone who worked with my office in developing this proposal, and I'd like to submit a number of letters and resolutions of support from Pueblos, counties, groups, elected officials, land grants, and others to show the immense coalition that is rallying behind this effort and I'd ask unanimous consent for that.

Without objection.

I'd like to end my statement today with a similar sentiment to one that I have shared in the past. This hearing and next week's National Parks legislative hearing will add to our growing list of land-based conservation bills ready for mark-up. Many of these bills have the same level of community support and input as my bill on the agenda today, yet those voices of support are going unheard. With only six months left in this Congress, it is my hope that we will see conservation bills in future business meetings so that we can get them marked up, passed, and finally signed into law. And I look forward to working with both of you as well as well w- as with uh Chairman Lee in this effort. Thank you very much, Chairman.

Uh, thank you, Senator Heirich. We're now gonna turn to our witnesses today. And we have Leah Baker who is here and she is the Acting Director uh for the Eastern States of the Bureau of Land Management. Thank you. We have Mr. John Crockett uh who is here, the Deputy Chief of State. Private and Tribal Forestry of the United States Forest Service. Thank you for being here. We have Miss Katie Sweeney, who is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Mining Association. Thanks for being here today. And also Miss Jennifer uh Davidson, who is the County Manager of Douglas County, Nevada. And so I appreciate all of you uh being here, and perhaps we could start with you, Miss Baker.

OK. Thank you very much. Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Cortez Masto, members of the Committee, thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity today to speak on behalf of the bills before you, um, representing the Bureau of Land Management. Um, I have worked for the Bureau of Land Management for nearly twenty years, and I have had the privilege and honor of enjoying the entire time that I worked there. The BLM manages approximately two hundred and forty-five million acres of public lands mostly in the twelve western United States and seven hundred million acres of subsurface mineral estates. throughout the country. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act, or FLPM, uh sets forth the BLM's mission of multiple use, which directs that public lands be managed for a broad range of uses, such as energy development, livestock grazing, timber production, hunting, fishing and recreation. Under the administration, the BLM is managing the nation's public lands as national assets, capable of growing the economy, helping balance the budget, and generating revenue for American taxpayers. Many of the bills on today's agenda further further the administration's priorities, particularly those promoting energy and mineral development and providing support for local communities. With s- with respect to energy and minerals, H R seventy-eight thirty-one would extend the BLM's authorization to collect oil and gas permit processing fees for ten years. The fees are essential to supporting permitting services and maintaining timely The BLM strongly supports H R seventy eight thirty one as it advances oil and gas exploration and production to meet the energy needs of our nation. S forty four ten incentivizes coal production by deferring a portion of the start-up costs as you said Senator Barrasso of coal operations on federal lands, and the BLM supports the bill. It would allow bonus bids for coal leases to be paid in ten installments rather than five, supporting the administration's work to revitalize American coal and strengthen America's energy security. H R forty ninety, meanwhile, would require that the secretary determine the impacts of the US reliance on imported minerals, and supporting mining efficiencies. The BLM supports H R forty ninety and welcomes these efforts to ensure that the United States maintains its position as a global leader in energy and mineral development. Additionally, Several geothermal bills before the committee offer valuable tools to streamline the development of this important energy source. Taken together, the bills would require annual competitive lease sales, ensure timely decisions on drilling applications, remove duplicative permitting, and expand categorical exclusions. They would also direct the development of a geothermal gold book and establish the ombudsman position and permitting task force to further promote development. The BLM supports these bills as they reinforce our efforts to strengthen permitting guidance and program capacity for geothermal permitting. Okay, with respect to public access to high-speed internet, the Close the Gap Act will help ensure that communities have access to affordable and reliable high-speed internet. It expedites the review and approval of broadband applications on federal lands. The BLM supports S forty-five sixty-one as it aligns with the administration's priorities to cut red tape and accelerate approvals for infrastructure projects. Finally, while the BLM supports several land conveyances proposed in the bills on today's agenda the BLM does not support the special designations and withdrawals, as they conflict with the administration's energy and mineral security objectives. As forty-two hundred conveys nearly nine thousand acres of federal lands in Douglas County Nevada designates the Burbank Canyons Wilderness and takes nearly twenty-five hundred acres of federal lands into trust for the benefit of the Washoe tribe of Nevada and California. The BLM supports the land and trust conveyances proposed in S forty-two hundred but does not support the bill's wilderness designation. Similarly, the Bureau does not support S forty-four fifty-eight, which establishes the Caja del Rio National Conservation Area and withdraws over one hundred thousand acres from energy and mineral development. Lastly, S seventeen ninety-one establishes multiple designations on over seven hundred thousand acres of federal lands, including over two hundred thousand acres of BLM-managed lands in Colorado, and includes several mineral withdrawals. The BLM opposes S seventeen ninety-one as it would create unnecessary limitations on potential energy and mineral development and limit hazardous fuels management. And finally, the Department of the Interior also submitted a statement for the

Hey, thanks so much for being here today, Mister Crockett.

Alright, uh, Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Cortez Masto, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for having me here to present the views of the U. S. Department of Agriculture on six bills that are under consideration pertaining to the Forest Service. My name is John Crockett and I'm a Deputy Chief in the U S Forest Service here in our National Headquarters, and I have over twenty-eight years of experience of uh career service to the agency. I'll provide provide a brief summary on the bills on today's agenda with equities for the U S Forest Service and I have submitted my full written statement for the record. I will defer to the Department of Interior on its vu- views on those elements of the bill that would affect federal lands under- issued under its jurisdiction. H R forty ninety, the Critical Minerals Dominance Act would mirror and codify several of the provisions in executive order one four one five four. These provisions include requirements for the Secretary of Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, to review and evaluate a range of policy and actions related to mining and mineral exploration on federal lands. S forty-five sixty-one, the close the gap act would require federal agencies to issue new regulations intended to streamline the process for broad land applications on federal lands. The USDA appreciates congressional efforts to reduce the regulatory burden and streamline the permitting process. Both HR forty-ninety and S forty-five sixty-one would support the implement- the implementation of executive order one four one five four, Unleashing American Energy, and would align with the actions under this administ- administration to alleviate regulatory burden and streamline the permitting process. The department supports both of these bills. H R six five five, the Dalles Watershed Development Act, seeks to simplify the administrative requirements for the City of Dalles, Oregon to operate its municipal re- reservoir. The City of Dalles municipal watershed includes the Crow Creek Dam and its reservoir, a portion of which is on the National Forest System land on the Mount Hood National Forest. Conveying this land would eliminate the city's need for a special use permit and the associated work for the city and the Forest Service staff. The department supports H R six five six five five. S forty-two hundred, the Douglas County Economic Development and Conservation Act, contains multiple provisions related to the conveyance, disposal, and transfer of lands managed by the Humboldt-Toyabe National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Union unit, as well as provisions related to the issuance of a special use permit on lands managed by the Forest Service. The s- the department supports the intent of the act to provide the economic development for the Douglas County Nevada. We would appreciate the opportunity to work with the bill's sponsor and the committee to provide technical assistance and legislative maps related to several sections of the bill, to ensure accuracy and support implementation in the provisions. Finally, in regards to two of the bills on today's agenda, S seventeen ninety-one, the Gunnison Outdoor R- Resource Protection Act, and S forty-four fifty-eight, the Caja del Hido Protection Act, the provisions of the bill specific to the forest service include significant and restrictive management designations that are contrary to the administration's priority on timber production and ener- energy and mineral mineral dominance. Both bills would mandate legislative requirements and restrictions for the management of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, Na- and Gunnison National Forests in Colorado and the Santa Fe National Forests in New Mexico that have respectively taken significant steps at the local level to incorporate the views and opinions on a wide range of stakeholders on their forest planning efforts. These designations are paired with permanent withdrawals that would prevent the exploration and development opportunities And therefore, the department opposes these bills. In closing, thank you again for the opportunity of to appear before the committee, and I look forward to answering any questions.

Thanks so much for being here, Mr. Crockett. Sweeney.

Good afternoon, Chair Barrasso, Ranking Member Cortes Masto, and members of the subcommittee. I appreciate being here in support of two bills that address critical issues facing this nation. S four four one zero designed to facilitate affordable and reliable energy, and H R forty ninety to secure our mineral supply chains. Both bills leverage our nation's abundant natural resource base to benefit modern society. Chair Barrasso, your bonus bill payments bill is a straightforward approach to make the mining of federal coal more attractive without sacrificing revenues to federal and state governments. It simply shifts the timing of the payment of the bonus bid, a fee paid by a successful lease applicant on top of all other rents, fees, taxes and royalties that are involved in federal co-leasing. Rather than spreading the payment over five years as is current practice, the legislation provides companies with ten years, a time frame, more commensurate to when a company would likely have the permits needed to begin operations and start seeing a return on investment. This approach will incentivize new production, resulting in a fresh influx of bonus bid revenue to federal and state coffers, a revenue source that has dried up over the last fifteen years due to actual and de facto moratorium on federal cold leasing. It has the added benefit of providing more predictable and stable revenues over time helpful to states like Wyoming that dedicate that income to school systems and need better budgeting certainty. Coal is a key piece of the answer to confronting skyrocketing energy demand and cost. Coal is America's most abundant energy resource. At current consumption rates, the US has more than two hundred and fifty years of remaining coal reserves, much of which is federally owned and managed. US power demand is expected to dramatically increase. by approximately seventy-five percent by twenty fifty, driven by the use of artificial intelligence, electrification, construction of data centers, and uptake of EVs. According to the International Energy Agency, for data centers alone, global electricity consumption is expected to double by more, more than double by twenty-thirty. The nation needs far more electricity, and it needs it fast. The NMA also strongly supports HR forty ninety, representative Stauber's Critical Mineral Dominance Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support. This legislation builds on executive presidential executive orders and presents a comprehensive and multifaceted approach to securing our mineral supply chains. These supply chains are highly concentrated in China and are increasingly vulnerable to manipulation and disruption. According to the US Geological Survey mineral commodity summaries in twenty twenty six, the US continued to be a hundred percent import reliant for sixteen minerals, and it was reliant on imports for more than one half of the US consumption of fifty-four non-fuel mineral commodities. Our economic and national security, and the ability to innovate, are absolutely reliant on access to minerals. both the ability to get them out of the ground and to process them into final products. By adopting policies included in HR forty ninety, with its focus on understanding import reliance trends, increasing permitting certainty, boosting by-product production, and improving geologic mapping, we can successfully de-risk and de-couple our mineral supply from foreign adversaries. We have significant advantages here in the United States, a vast mineral endowment, a highly skilled workforce, world-leading safety, labor and environmental standards, existing infrastructure and renewed administration and congressional focus and support. Permitting efficiencies are paramount. Today it takes an average of twenty-nine years to bring a new mine online in America, the longest of almost all nations, driving increased import reliance and making it more difficult for domestic producers to compete globally. Avocerries like China are already exploiting this vulnerability, as they dominate the sourcing, processing and supply of global mineral markets. The mining industry looks forward to working with this subcommittee to advance these two important bills, as well as other critical legislation under the committee's purview, including the bipartisan Mining Regulatory Clarity Act. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. And I look forward to answering any questions.

Thanks so much for all your comments. Miss Davidson.

Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Cortes Masto, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Jennifer Davidson, and I am the County Manager for Douglas County, Nevada. I want to thank Senator Cortes Masto for her leadership on this bill, Senator Rosen for her steadfast support, and Congressman Amadei for his partnership in the House. I am here in strong support of Douglas County Economic Development and Conservation Act, Senate Bill forty-two hundred. Douglas County is home to the state's first town and its first ranches, but most of the land in our county is federally owned. And for decades that has constrained our ability to manage lands for stormwater and flood protection and to access lands for recreation. Our goals through this bill are clear. Advance flood control and stormwater management, preserve open space, enhance recreation, protect the rural character and quality of life, safeguard the floodplain, and honor the rich cultural heritage of our reader- our of our region in partnership with the Washoe tribe of Nevada and California. For me, this is personal. I have served Douglas County for nearly twenty years in my tenure. This county has experienced five one hundred year flooding events. In flood years, I am five hundred years old. Flooding is our reality, and the most pressing driver for this legislation is flood protection. Last September, a four-foot wall of water trapped the residents of Rundstroth, closed Highway three ninety-five and damaged fourteen homes, although the red the rain did not fall on the residents there. The storm fell on public land to the east and funneled down Smelter Creek. It's force sharply increased by the Connor fire, which had burned twenty-six percent of the f- uh, fourteen thousand acre drainage basin. In two thousand fourteen and again in two thousand fifteen, back-to-back floods, flash floods drove mud and debris through the Johnson Lane neighborhood. And in twenty twenty three, a March rain on snow event combined alluvial and river flooding, inundated public infrastructure and threatened the towns of Minden and Gartnerville. Homes built in these areas were often not in the floodplain at the time they were constructed, and many are still uninsured against the alluvial flash flooding that now reaches them. In two thousand twenty four, the county consolidated years of drainage studies into a comprehensive stormwater master plan. We identified and ranked over one hundred million in flood control projects that would directly benefit these neighborhoods and others. The major barrier is accessing the land to build them. S forty two hundred conveys land so that we can manage the alluvial fans that carry stormwater from the Pine Nut Mountains into our communities. Today, the federal government lacks the staff and resources to build this infrastructure itself. The county has actively pursued administrative solutions to access the land we need through BLM's Recreation and Public Purposes Act. That leasing process works acre by acre and would take years, even decades, that we do not have to complete. That is precisely why congressional action is critical. This bill lets us act now under our own adopted local plan, protecting lives and property. S forty two hundred also lets us manage land use responsibly. For a hundred and fifty years, the open ranch land along the Carson River has served as a natural safety valve, protecting thousands of residents and saving hundreds of millions of dollars by spreading flood water over pasture instead of through our towns. This bill will retain this system by helping to conserve this land. Douglas County limits building permits and manages growth so that it does not conflict with our zoning or stormwater plans. For this reason, any federally land identified for disposal under the Carson Resource Management Plan must be jointly selected before it can be sold or developed in our county. The bill also strengthens our e- our economy and quality of life. It conveys land solely for public purposes so that we can improve access to parks, trailheads, and campgrounds, and maintain them where the Forest Service cannot. Many of these recreation areas have been closed for years for lack of federal resources. Every acre we receive carries a reversion clause. If used for anything but a public purpose, it returns to the United States. The bill honors our partnership with the Washoe tribe of Nevada and California, conveying sacred cultural sites, including Dance Hill, into trust for, to protect cultural resources and support the tribe's economic vitality. The legislation balances conservation with access, designating the Burbank Canyon wilderness area, protecting habitat, for the bi-state grouse, while permanently keeping existing roads open for outdoor recreation. Members of this subcommittee, this bill solves problems that grow more urgent with every year. Douglas County has done the work, we have built the consensus, now we need Congress to finish the job. I respectfully urge swift passage of the Douglas County lands bill. Thank you and I welcome your questions.

Well, thank you very much, and if you want swift passage, you've already been five hundred years waiting, so it's a, we hope to move faster than that. Thank you. Thank you so much for all your testimony. Thank you all uh for being here. I'm sure we're gonna have minute question by each of the members who are here. I'm gonna start and ask you, Miss Sweeney, if I could, talking about this uh the the bill that I have. Uh, the coal, if a coal company wins a lease sale, and you're very familiar with this, it still usually takes at least five years of delay before it receives even a permit to start mining. So you can't make any money during that time, but you're having to pay uh right away once you you win the the bid. Uh, the um So, the the change that we're proposing, this bill allows companies to pay over an extended period of time. You still have to start paying right away, even though you don't have the thing. It d- so that it just extends it over time. You still pay the full value of the bid. Uh, now it's just gonna actually make more financial sense, it - it - it seems. Uh, if we assume this bill is passed and the BLM announces sales for new leases, how do you think that would affect, uh, revenue coming in and - and cold re- cold leasing in general?

So I definitely I definitely think it incentivizes new f- uh, interest in federal cold leasing. I think you'll see more companies, um, expressing interest in bidding. I, uh Having that allocated over ten years provides more certainty. It gives them the time to get into production and make a return on their investment. Um, so it's not all sunk. upfront costs. So it makes more business sense and provides that kind of budgeting certainty that companies require.

Uh, I'm trying to figure out how you come in up with a number of how much to bid. And because you have this this kind of this secret number that's confidential that they that the uh BLM comes up with. Uh, coal companies doesn't know what that is, the public in general doesn't learn what the value what that is. Uh, they they come up with a number and you have to s- submit a sealed bid and you You're the highest bidder, you say, wha- what did I not know that everybody else figured out that they bid, bid lower, but you've won that, and you paid the bonus. Uh, and, and we're talking about, I understand, hundreds of millions of dollars in some of,

Yes.

in some of these bids. So we're not talking just a little, little incremental difference. So, and then if any bid is lower than the secret number that they've come up with, you just lose. And you can't bid on that again. You have to wait for another sale to come up at, at a later time. When you work with other companies, How do you get to approve the bidding process, specifically the determination of fair market value and how you could make more intelligent decisions and the the government could make more revenue? Is there something that you'd recommend?

Yeah, there's definitely room for improvement. I think that the situation is very complicated by the fact that we had these cold moratoriums, so you don't have comparable lease sales anymore. So we have to really understand the new re realities of the coal markets um costs prices um and all of those will feed into that fair market value number but we don't have the data anymore because we haven't had any lease sales for so long so i think there are some room for uh industry and congress and the federal government working together to find some solutions on what those inputs would be. Not that every company needs to know exactly what to bid, because of course we wanna protect the integrity of the process. But there has to be, I think, some more concrete understanding of the components that go into the fair market value determination.

Mm. Good. Alright, thank you. Ms. Begren, you've been watching that with great interest, anything you wanna comment on that? Then I'm gonna ask you a question about broadband.

Thank you, sir. Um, the Bureau of Land Management, as I mentioned in the testimony, does support this bill.

Mm-hmm.

Um, we agree that the, um, spreading out of the cost for the companies over a decade as opposed to five years, will help incentivize additional competition in the market, hopefully bring more folks into the, into the,

Yeah.

um, business.

Yeah, anything else on how you kinda come up with a fair market value, like she just said? you know if there haven't been sales in a long period of time it's hard to know what a fair market price is

so establishing fair market value is not my area of expertise i have observed it in sales in my role in blm eastern states

sure you

um but i don't have any uh specific position on that and we could certainly pull some information on our current process

sure

um and return it

but yeah i think that just be helpful for all of us to understand how it works um with regard to the broad band would you agree that rural states are gonna face some serious in meeting uh the uh four year broadband equity access and deployment of the bead, build out time frame unless we really have some significant permitting reforms.

Yes, sir. Uh, it's my understanding that with um a lot of the broadband permitting um under the bead requirements that the Bureau of Land Management doesn't receive the application until year three of the four year process so that means that there's only one year left to process the permits we've discussed permitting delays and, yes, that can provide or can create a significant burden for rural communities.

Great, thank Senator Cortes-Mass.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

Um, Miss Davidson, getting back to uh Senate Bill forty-two hundred, the Clark County, excuse me, the Douglas County um lands bill. Uh, clearly part of the urgent driver to advance the bill is the flood pla- protection, correct?

Yes, ma'am.

And why is that essential?

Uh, thank you, Senator Cortes Masto, for your question. Uh, as I mentioned, our community is in a bowl. Uh, the Carson River runs through it. We are surrounded on all sides by public land. Um, the storms that we are confronted with, the changing weather patterns and severity of those storms are complicated often, um, by burn scars, uh, repeated wire, wildfire events. on public lands. Uh, the solution needs to be as far upstream to, um, maximum benefit, uh, to help us, uh, best leverage the limited funding we have available as a community to install, um, these drainage retention basins to retain as much of the water as possible.

And for the county to take control to be able to do that, is that right?

Absolutely.

Yeah, and be more flexible and and expedient to the n- the urgency of the the weather problem, correct? Yes. Um, let me ask you this, uh, in Nevada, and particularly in Douglas County, and we've seen this throughout the lands bills in Nevada, quite often, um, people don't realize, many stakeholders come out when we're talking about lands bills, because everybody wants to be a part of the management of the land. In, in particularly as we're talking about, um, Douglas County, um, there's fifty thousand people that live there, but sixty percent of the land is managed by the federal government. has been a challenge for many counties and many local governments to deal with. But can you talk about why bringing together, and you talked about this a little bit, the Washoe tribe, the conservationists, the outdoor recreation enthusiasts, members of the community, why is it important to bring them all together to get their support eh on this particular lands bill?

Thank you again for the question, Senator. Uh, I am very proud, uh, to be speaking on behalf of my community. Uh, we feel very strongly and passionately about where we live. Douglas County is absolutely a special place because of the stakeholder groups that you mentioned. It was really important. We began this stakeholder proc- process back in two thousand nine. Uh, before we even proposed this legislation, we worked for three years engaging with diverse stakeholder groups, individuals and groups, to make sure that this bill was, uh, enjoyed broad, robust support, um, across all of our entities in Douglas County. Um, it does that. It was important for it to do so because our residents feel passionately about public land um they would have been frankly offended if we proposed anything that was um not part of their vision was not supportive of our community master planning process and we knew in order to get it right we needed to engage with the stakeholders first um the Washoe tribe especially on their pieces uh the significance of those pieces and we wanted to make sure that we were solving as many problems as we could with this legislation without creating more that was the reason

and can i just say i was uh we were in our home states just a week ago and i was in douglas county it's absolutely beautiful and we were looking at some of the flood control issues and um the management by the municipalities there and what is essential for the people that live there it's beautiful country people don't realize it but people The quality, quality of life is important for everyone who lives there, and that's what you're trying to manage as you bring the stakeholders together in these land spills. And a key piece of that is the wilderness designation. Uh, I don't believe you would have put that in there, but for the need and the, what you're hearing in the community about the wilderness designation and the need to um preserve the prime habitat for the bi-state sage-grouse populations. Miss Baker, you talked a little bit about um support for the land and trust conveyances but no to the wilderness. Can you address why no to the wilderness?

Thank you, ma'am. Um, as a matter of policy, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management doesn't support broad wilderness designation because of the restrictive use that it places on the lands that we manage um preventing potential mineral development, preventing preventing um various means of public access, et cetera.