[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1884 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1884
To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 12, 2021
Mr. Grijalva (for himself, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Kilmer, Mr.
Ruiz, Mr. Sablan, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Meeks, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Hastings,
Ms. Leger Fernandez, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Gomez, Mr. Cardenas, Mrs.
Napolitano, Ms. Norton, Ms. Meng, Ms. DeGette, and Ms. Pingree)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, and for other
purposes.
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 ``Save Oak Flat Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck''
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015
(16 U.S.C. 539p) authorizes Oak Flat, which is sacred to Indian
Tribes in the region and is part of the larger Chi'chil
Bi5dagoteel Traditional Cultural Property listed in the
National Register of Historic Places, to be transferred to
Resolution Copper.
(2) Resolution Copper plans to hold Oak Flat privately for
a mining project that will--
(A) result in the physical destruction of Tribal
sacred areas and deprive American Indians from
practicing their religious ceremonies and other
traditional practices;
(B) create significant negative environmental
impacts by destroying Oak Flat and depleting and
contaminating precious water resources; and
(C) require significant quantities of water, which
will--
(i) likely affect the local hydrology,
including the underlying aquifer; and
(ii) result in polluted water that will
seep into drinking water supplies.
(3)(A) Once Resolution Copper owns Oak Flat, Resolution
Copper plans to use the highly destructive block cave mining
method to remove 1 cubic mile of ore that (as of the date of
enactment of this Act) is located 7,000 feet beneath the
surface of the earth without replacing any of the earth
removed, because that is the cheapest form of mining.
(B) Resolution Copper admits that the surface of Oak Flat
will subside and ultimately collapse, destroying forever the
Tribal sacred areas described in paragraph (2)(A).
(4) The Tonto National Forest in which Oak Flat is located
was established in 1905 from the ancestral homelands of
American Indians, who were forcibly removed at gunpoint from
Oak Flat and other areas of the Forest by the Army during the
1880s and held as prisoners of war until the early 1900s.
(5)(A) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P.
``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)--
(i) was included in that Act without proper
legislative process, in a manner that circumvented the
will of the majority of Members of Congress; and
(ii) was originally introduced in the House of
Representatives as H.R. 687 and in the Senate as S. 339
during the 113th Congress.
(B) H.R. 687 was--
(i) brought to the floor of the House of
Representatives for consideration twice; and
(ii) pulled from consideration each time.
(C) S. 339 was never considered--
(i) by the Senate; or
(ii) for mark-up by the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources of the Senate.
(D) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck''
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015
(16 U.S.C. 539p) was included in that Act without majority
support from either the House of Representatives or the Senate.
(E) A proposed amendment to remove that section was not
allowed to be considered before passage of the bill.
(6)(A) Indian Tribes have--
(i) ceded or had taken from the Tribes millions of
acres of land to help build the United States; and
(ii) suffered under Federal assimilationist
policies that sought to destroy Tribal cultures.
(B) Despite those policies, American Indians continue to
practice their religions as they have done for thousands of
years.
(C) American Indian places of worship, or sacred areas, are
often land-based, including mountains, streams, and trees.
(D) As a result of previous Federal land policies that
resulted in the significant loss of land of Indian Tribes, many
sacred areas of the Tribes are currently located on Federal
land.
(7)(A) The United States has a trust responsibility
acknowledged by Congress to protect Tribal sacred areas on
Federal land, including pursuant to laws requiring meaningful
consultation with affected Indian Tribes before making
decisions that will impact American Indians; but
(B) in contradiction to those laws, section 3003 of the
Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p)
requires the mandatory conveyance of a Tribal sacred area
located on Federal land, regardless of the outcome of
consultation with affected Indian Tribes.
(8) Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck''
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015
(16 U.S.C. 539p)--
(A) was strongly opposed by Indian Tribes
throughout the United States because that section
establishes a dangerous legislative precedent for the
lack of protection of Tribal sacred areas located on
Federal land by mandating the conveyance of Federal
land with significant religious, cultural, historic,
and anthropological significance for Indian Tribes to a
private company that will destroy the land;
(B) circumvents standard environmental review
procedures that ensure that the public interest is
protected, including the interests of Indian Tribes;
and
(C) requires a mandatory conveyance of Oak Flat,
regardless of the findings resulting from the
environmental review process.
(9) The inclusion in the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck''
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015
of section 3003 of that Act (16 U.S.C. 539p) establishes a
negative precedent for--
(A) the legislative process; and
(B) Federal Indian policy.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In the Act:
(1) Oak flat.--The term ``Oak Flat'' means the
approximately 2,422 acres of Forest System land in the Tonto
National Forest in southeastern Arizona commonly known as ``Oak
Flat'' and generally depicted as ``Oak Flat Withdrawal Area''
on the map titled ``Save Oak Flat Act of 2021'' and dated March
15, 2021.
(2) Resolution copper.--The term ``Resolution Copper''
means Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, a Delaware limited
liability company.
SEC. 4. REPEAL AND WITHDRAWAL.
(a) Repeal.--Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck''
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16
U.S.C. 539p) is repealed.
(b) Withdrawal.--Subject to valid rights in existence on the date
of the enactment of this Act, Oak Flat is withdrawn from all forms of--
(1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land
laws;
(2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and
(3) disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and
geothermal leasing or mineral materials.
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