The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday will mark up 20 bills, including one dealing with offshore drilling and another with a contentious coal mine in Montana.
H.R. 725, the “Crow Revenue Act,” from Rep. Troy Downing (R-Mont.), would mandate a mineral ownership swap between the Crow Tribe, Hope Family Trust and federal government in the Bull Mountains area north of Billings.
The bill — co-sponsored by Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) — would also require the Crow Tribe and the Hope Family Trust to enter into a revenue-sharing agreement. Republican Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy have a companion.
The bill’s goal is to protect the flow of Crow Tribe revenues from an existing mine. The Interior Department earlier this month said it would fast-track review for a pending expansion of Signal Peak Energy’s Bull Mountains mine.
