United States 119th Congress Status: In Committee 26 R cosponsors

HR 513 — Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025

Last action — Subcommittee Hearings Held

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  1. ✓
    Introduced
  2. 2
    In Committee
  3. 3
    Passed House
  4. 4
    Passed Senate
  5. 5
    To Executive
  6. 6
    Enacted

This bill is in committee in the House. Introduced January 16, 2025. It must pass committee before a floor vote.

Next likely step: a committee vote, then a floor vote in the House.

Prognosis

Stalled 26% · moderate confidence

Where this bill stands today.

Odds of enactment

Low

How often bills like it became law.

  • In Committee

    Current position in the legislative process.

  • 26 sponsors

    1 primary, 25 co-sponsors signed on.

  • Single-party support

    Sponsorship is currently within one party (26 R).

Prognosis reads this bill's own signals — stage, sponsorship breadth, committee status, recorded votes and cross-state momentum. Odds come from a model trained on which bills have become law.

In plain language

This bill limits the President's authority to withdraw unleased offshore lands.

The Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025 restricts the President's ability to withdraw unleased lands on the Outer Continental Shelf for more than 20 years and caps withdrawals at 150,000 acres without Congressional approval for larger withdrawals. It also nullifies past presidential withdrawals related to offshore mineral development.

Summary

Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025This bill limits the withdrawal of unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from areas that may be leased for mineral development and nullifies certain past withdrawals. The OCS includes the federally managed ocean area extending from the outer boundaries of state-controlled waters (generally 3 nautical miles [nmi] from shore) to 200 nmi from shore, with some exceptions.Specifically, the bill limits the President's authority to restrict offshore development of minerals, such as oil and gas, on the OCS. For example, the bill (1) caps the number of acres of OCS lands that a President may withdraw from areas that may be leased; (2) prohibits withdrawals from being made for a period longer than 20 years; (3) prohibits the President from making withdrawals of unleased land that conflict with areas included in lease sales scheduled under approved oil and gas leasing programs; and (4) prohibits the President from withdrawing unleased lands unless the Department of the Interior has completed assessments addressing issues such as mineral resources and the national security, economic, and energy value of the identified mineral deposits.The President must also obtain congressional approval before withdrawing more than 500,000 acres cumulatively. Further, the bill gives Congress the authority to review and disapprove withdrawals by enacting a joint resolution.In addition, the bill nullifies certain presidential memoranda and executive orders related to withdrawing unleased land from areas that may be leased for the development of oil, gas, or other minerals on the OCS.

Bill Text

Sections of law this bill changes

1 section in 1 law

From the bill's own amending language, matched to the official United States Code (current through Public Law 119-121).

Submerged lands · 43 U.S.C. ch. 29 1 section
  • § 1341 Reservation of lands and rights Amends

    43 U.S.C. § 1341 — at 1341(a)

    The law today

    (a) Withdrawal of unleased lands by President The President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf. (b) First refusal of mineral purchases In time of war, or when the President shall so prescribe, the United States shall have the right of first refusal to purchase at the market price all or any portion of any mineral produced from the outer Continental Shelf. (c) National security clause All leases issued under this subchapter, and leases, the maintenance and operation of which are authorized under this subchapter, shall contain or be construed to contain a provision whereby authority is vested in the Secretary, upon a recommendation of the Secretary of Defense, during a state of war or national emergency declared by the Congress or the President of the United States after August 7, 1953, to suspend operations under any lease; and all such leases shall contain or be construed to contain provisions for the payment of just compensation to the lessee whose operations are thus suspended. (d) National defense areas; suspension of operations; extension of leases The United States reserves and retains the right to designate by and through the Secretary of Defense, with the approval of the President, as areas restricted from exploration and operation that part of the outer Continental Shelf needed for national defense; and so long as such designation remains in effect no exploration or operations may be conducted on any part of the surface of such area except with the concurrence of the Secretary of Defense; and if operations or production under any lease theretofore issued on lands within any such restricted area shall be suspended, any payment of rentals, minimum royalty, and royalty prescribed by such lease likewise shall be suspended during such period of suspension of operation and production, and the term of such lease shall be extended by adding thereto any such suspension period, and the United States shall be liable to the lessee for such compensation as is required to be paid under the Constitution of the United States. (e) Source materials essential to production of fissionable materials All uranium, thorium, and all other materials determined pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection (b) of section 5 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, as amended, to be peculiarly essential to the production of fissionable material, contained, in whatever concentration, in deposits in the subsoil or seabed of the outer Continental Shelf are reserved for the use of the United States. (f) Helium ownership; rules and regulations governing extraction The United States reserves and retains the ownership of and the right to extract all helium, under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary, contained in gas produced from any portion of the outer Continental Shelf which may be subject to any lease maintained or granted pursuant to this subchapter, but the helium shall be extracted from such gas so as to cause no substantial delay in the delivery of gas produced to the purchaser of such gas.

    16 other bills also change this section · Follow it → Official text at uscode.house.gov ↗

How this bill changes current law

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Compared against current U.S. Code AI-generated reading aid — verify against the official bill.

The bill limits the President's authority to withdraw unleased offshore lands by nullifying specific previous withdrawals and imposing new requirements for future withdrawals.

  • 43 U.S.C. 1341(a)

    (a) Withdrawal of unleased lands by President The President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf. → (a) Withdrawal of Unleased Lands by the President.-- (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), the President shall have authority to withdraw unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.

    The President's authority to withdraw unleased offshore lands is modified to include new restrictions.

  • 43 U.S.C. 1341(a)

    Beginning on the date of enactment of the Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025, the President shall transmit a withdrawal made under the preceding sentence to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    The requirement for the President to inform Congress of any withdrawal is established.

  • 43 U.S.C. 1341(a)

    (2) Limitations.-- (A) Acres.--A withdrawal under paragraph (1) may not exceed an area larger than 150,000 acres in total or contiguous with any other withdrawal under such paragraph. (B) Period.--A withdrawal under paragraph (1) may not be made for a period longer than 20 years. (C) Cumulative withdrawals.--No President may, under paragraph (1), withdraw more than 500,000 acres cumulatively without obtaining Congressional approval.

    Limits are placed on the size and duration of Presidential withdrawals of offshore lands, and cumulative withdrawals require Congressional approval.

  • 43 U.S.C. 1341(a)

    (3) Assessments required.--The President may not withdraw unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf under paragraph (1) unless-- (A) the Secretary completed a quantitative and qualitative geophysical and geological mineral resource assessment of the lands to be withdrawn during the 5-year period ending on the date of such withdrawal; (B) the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Agriculture, completed an assessment of the economic, energy, and national security value of mineral deposits identified in the mineral resource assessment completed under subparagraph (A); (C) the Secretary completed an assessment of the expected reduction in future Federal revenues resulting from the proposed withdrawal to the Treasury, States (including from allocations made under section 105 of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 (43 U.S.C. 1331 note)), the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Historic Preservation Fund; (D) the Secretary submits to the Committees on Natural Resources, Agriculture, Armed Services, Energy and Commerce, and Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Armed Services, Energy and Natural Resources, and Foreign Relations of the Senate a report that includes the results of the assessments completed under this subsection.

    New assessment requirements are established before the President can withdraw unleased offshore lands.

  • 43 U.S.C. 1341(a)

    (4) Congressional disapproval procedure.-- (A) Joint resolution defined.--For the purposes of this paragraph, the term `joint resolution' means only a joint resolution, which may not have a preamble, the matter after the resolving clause of which is as follows: `That Congress disapproves the withdrawal made under section 12(a)(1) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act on ____, relating to ____, and such withdrawal shall have no force or effect.' (the blank spaces being appropriately filled in).

    A procedure for Congress to disapprove Presidential withdrawals is established.

Action History

  1. Subcommittee Hearings Held

  2. Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

  3. Introduced in House

  4. Introduced in House

  5. Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  6. Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Sponsors

Sponsorship breakdown

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1 sponsors · 25 co-sponsors · 521 not signed on

Sponsors (1)

Co-sponsors (25)

Not signed on (521)

521 members have not signed on to this bill.

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"Not signed on" means a member has not sponsored or co-sponsored this bill — it does not imply opposition. Members flagged Voted No have a recorded No vote on this bill.

Whip count is in markup. Polling the chamber and every recorded vote this session. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Calling the roll · Tallying · Engrossing

Subjects

energy
Cross-referencing the record. Reading this bill against every other bill in the corpus by meaning, not keywords. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Matching · Ranking · Engrossing

Frequently asked questions

What does HR 513 do?
Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025This bill limits the withdrawal of unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from areas that may be leased for mineral development and nullifies certain past withdrawals. The OCS includes the federally managed ocean area extending from the outer boundaries of state-controlled waters (generally 3 nautical miles [nmi] from shore) to 200 nmi from shore, with some exceptions.Specifically, the bill limits the President's authority to restrict offshore development of minerals, such as oil and gas, on the OCS. For example, the bill (1) caps the number of acres of OCS lands that a President may withdraw from areas that may be leased; (2) prohibits withdrawals from being made for a period longer than 20 years; (3) prohibits the President from making withdrawals of unleased land that conflict with areas included in lease sales scheduled under approved oil and gas leasing programs; and (4) prohibits the President from withdrawing unleased lands unless the Department of the Interior has completed assessments addressing issues such as mineral resources and the national security, economic, and energy value of the identified mineral deposits.The President must also obtain congressional approval before withdrawing more than 500,000 acres cumulatively. Further, the bill gives Congress the authority to review and disapprove withdrawals by enacting a joint resolution.In addition, the bill nullifies certain presidential memoranda and executive orders related to withdrawing unleased land from areas that may be leased for the development of oil, gas, or other minerals on the OCS.
Who sponsors HR 513?
HR 513 is sponsored by Hunt, Wesley (Republican), Weber, Randy K. Sr. (Republican), Burchett, Tim (Republican), Shreve, Jefferson (Republican), Meuser, Daniel (Republican), Arrington, Jodey C. (Republican), Miller, Carol D. (Republican), Crenshaw, Dan (Republican), Brecheen, Josh (Republican), Van Duyne, Beth (Republican), Perry, Scott (Republican), Tiffany, Thomas P. (Republican), Miller, Mary E. (Republican), Ogles, Andrew (Republican), Burlison, Eric (Republican), Clyde, Andrew S. (Republican), Biggs, Andy (Republican), Harris, Andy (Republican), Moore, Barry (Republican), Stauber, Pete (Republican), Balderson, Troy (Republican), Baird, James R. (Republican), Newhouse, Dan (Republican), Johnson, Dusty (Republican), Hageman, Harriet M. (Republican), and Higgins, Clay (Republican).
What is the current status of HR 513?
This bill is in committee in the House. Introduced January 16, 2025. It must pass committee before a floor vote.
Where can I track HR 513?
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