Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jim Risch’s (R-Idaho) Mining Regulatory Clarity Act to allow critical mineral production to continue in the West passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with bipartisan support. Now that the bill has cleared this key committee hurdle, it heads to the Senate floor for consideration.
“Nevada is leading the way in critical mineral mining, and we should be making it easier to responsibly mine these minerals here in the U.S.,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “My legislation has advanced with bipartisan support because my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognize that this bill cuts red tape, supports our national security and clean energy economies, and creates good paying jobs. I’m going to continue my work to pass this bill into law as soon as possible.”
The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act provides regulatory certainty for mining projects and reaffirms long-held practice that some public land-use under a mining claim inherently accompanies exploration and extraction activities for other mining-support activities. This bill creates an optional and voluntary pathway to allow use of public lands for ancillary purposes connected to a mining project that can only be used within an agency-approved Plan of Operations. The bill also creates a new revenue stream from new mill site claims to be dedicated to abandoned mine clean-up efforts. This legislation is cosponsored by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). It is led in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Mark Amodei (R-Nev.-02) and Congressman Steven Horsford (D-Nev.-04).
Senator Cortez Masto has led efforts in Congress to support Nevada’s mining industry, protecting more than 83,000 local jobs and paving the way for Nevada to power the clean energy economy. She has consistently blocked burdensome taxes on mining and wrote important provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bolster Nevada’s critical mineral supply chain and fund battery recycling programs in the state. She’s also introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the domestic supply chain for rare-earth magnets.
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