Mining reform faces trouble
WASHINGTON — Although he stopped short of a veto threat, President Bush on Thursday said he opposes a mining reform bill that would impose an 8 percent royalty on gross revenues for new mines and a 4 percent royalty on existing mining operations, according to Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
Heller was one of a group of about eight freshmen Republicans from the House who met with the president and Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday afternoon at the White House.
"The president wanted to talk to us about specific issues like immigration, free trade and SCHIP (children’s insurance)," Heller said.
"I mentioned that he campaigned in Elko last year and the people there are true and blue to him, and then I talked about how this mining bill would affect them," Heller said. "He said he does not support the bill in its current form."
White House spokesman Alex Conant declined to comment on the meeting but confirmed that the Bush administration opposes the mining reform bill.
Representatives of the Nevada Mining Association didn’t return calls before press time seeking comment on the reform law.
Heller is a member of the House Resources Committee, which began debating the bill Thursday and is expected to pass it on Tuesday.
The committee’s leading Republican, Don Young of Alaska, erupted when Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., offered an amendment that would apply the 8 percent royalty to existing mines as well as new ones.
Young said if he owned a mining claim on federal land and DeFazio’s amendment became law, he would be in court "the next day."
"We make a fortune for a bunch of trial lawyers because we pass stupid laws," Young fumed.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who is the author of the bill, also opposed DeFazio’s amendment. It was defeated by voice vote.
Rahall’s bill also would make permanent a federal moratorium on mining patents, which has continued since 1994.
Last month, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee conducted a hearing on reforming the 1872 Mining Law, but a bill has not been introduced in the Senate.
Before introducing an amendment that would scrap the 8 percent royalty on gross proceeds in favor of a Nevada model that would impose a 5 percent royalty on net mining revenues, Heller cracked that the Rahall bill would make all mining families in the West eligible for the children’s health insurance program.
Rahall appeared annoyed and complained he had not been given an advance copy of Heller’s amendment.
"This is a 16-page amendment we are now seeing for the first time that totally rewrites the most complex section of the bill," Rahall said.
Heller said the Nevada model had been discussed in previous hearings on the bill, including a field hearing two months ago in Elko. Mining is Nevada’s second-leading industry, behind gambling.
Rahall postponed roll call votes on all amendments, including Heller’s, until Tuesday’s hearing.
Heller said he also plans to offer an amendment that would increase the state’s share of mining royalties to 50 percent instead of the one-third share in Rahall’s bill.
"I think states and local communities can do a better job of cleaning up abandoned mines," Heller said.
Even if the committee approves the bill without amending the royalty provisions, Rep. Ed Costa, D-Calif., said there is a good chance the percentages will change as the measure moves through Congress.
"This is a work in progress," said Costa, who chaired the August field hearing in Elko.
Contact reporter Tony Batt at tbatt@stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760.
