[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1106 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1106

  To amend the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 to 
    require that any settlement, by an alternative means of dispute 
    resolution, of a claim against the United States for payment of 
 royalties under that Act for an amount greater than $2,000,000 shall 
   not be effective unless approved by the Secretary of the Interior.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 18, 1997

  Mrs. Maloney of New York (for herself, Mr. Filner, Mr. Meehan, Mr. 
     Dellums, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Ms. Lofgren, and Mr. Kucinich) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 to 
    require that any settlement, by an alternative means of dispute 
    resolution, of a claim against the United States for payment of 
 royalties under that Act for an amount greater than $2,000,000 shall 
   not be effective unless approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Royalty Settlement Reform Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. APPROVAL OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR REQUIRED FOR CERTAIN 
              SETTLEMENTS OF CLAIMS AGAINST UNITED STATES FOR PAYMENT 
              OF ROYALTIES.

    (a) Approval Requirement.--Title I of the Federal Oil and Gas 
Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1711) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new section:

  ``approval of secretary required for certain settlements of claims 
                         against united states

    ``Sec. 118. (a) Any settlement by an alternative means of dispute 
resolution of a claim against the United States for payment of 
royalties under this Act, under which the absolute value of the sum of 
all individual claims covered by the settlement exceeds $2,000,000, 
shall not be effective unless approved by the Secretary of the 
Interior.
    ``(b) In this section, the term `alternative means of dispute 
resolution' has the meaning given that term in section 571 of title 5, 
United States Code.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents in section 1 of the 
Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1711) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new item:


``Sec. 118. Approval of Secretary required for certain settlements of 
                            claims of United States.''.
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