The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday voted for two mining bills, including a bipartisan but contentious proposal that could expand operations on public land.
The committee voted 14-6 for S. 544, the “Mining Regulatory Clarity Act,” from Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho). The bill would allow a company to establish mining claims for lands where they deposit tailings — the waste material from mineral extraction — within an approved plan of operations.
Those companies would not have to first establish valuable minerals underground, as is currently required under a 2019 federal court ruling.
Cortez Masto during the markup defended the legislation and insisted it would not overturn the court’s ruling, but create a voluntary “alternative approach” for companies to comply with the law within an agency-approved plan of operations.
