Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Chairman, the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program was created by Hal Rogers a few years ago. It has already borne promising fruit, delivering environmental cleanup and much-needed economic development to some of the poorest parts of our country, the Appalachian coalfields.

In one AMLER Program in my district, we used it to take down highwalls at an old mine, and the area was redeveloped into an industrial site.

Likewise, in another place, a public-private partnership--and keep in mind, that means there is a lot of private money. Sometimes counties put money in. It is not just AMLER money, but AMLER money is a big help.

In that case, the public-private partnership came in and cleaned up an old coal fines pond. It saved the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement one-third of the estimated cleanup costs, and it was done decades earlier than expected.

However, the specter of OSMRE imposing a perpetual Federal interest in every AMLER project is hurting what I believe is a great program.

A letter from the region sums it up best. ``Dear Senator Warner: The purpose of this correspondence is to solicit your support and assistance in challenges associated with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.''

This is from the Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority. It is a regional economic development authority established in 2019 whose membership is composed of the Counties of Dickenson, Lee, Scott, and Wise, and the city of Norton, which are in far southwest Virginia.

``The authority member localities work collaboratively as a region to create employment opportunities for its citizens, and its mission is straightforward: `to cooperatively develop and enhance regional economic opportunities for member localities.' The relevant issue revolves around the terms required to be placed in deeds for real estate acquired and improved through program funds. Current required language mandates that portions of the Code of Federal Regulations . . . applies to all projects. In short, 2 CFR, part 200, provides for what is defined as a `Federal interest' in any real estate, equipment, or personal property in which AMLER funds are expended. This Federal interest would be memorialized in any real estate by a recorded instrument in respective county circuit court offices.

``The existence of a `Federal interest' results in OSMRE having to approve any conveyances or transfers of interest concerning real estate in which AMLER funds are expended. OSMRE could further seek recoupment of all AMLER funds invested in the property being considered for transfer. No time limit is given for this `Federal interest,' and as of the date of this letter,'' which was May of this year, ``the Federal interest would be perpetual in nature. As you can imagine, these regulations will severely impact the region's ability to use property as an incentive for economic development prospects. It is uncertain under these regulations if OSMRE would consider approving any conveyance for real estate to a private developer. In addition, localities would be prohibited to pledge any real estate with a `Federal interest' as collateral'' to try to make the development work.

``The review and consideration of these issues also contribute to a much-extended time period within the approval process. In the arena of economic development, time is one of the most important factors in making deals and attracting prospects to'' this Appalachian region.

``The accumulative impacts of these regulations are causing localities to deter from pursuing AMLER program funds as a source for economic development'' in the region.

Now, that was the whole point of the program, to take abandoned mine land areas, improve the mine area, and make it available for new economic development in one of the poorest regions of the country, Mr. Chairman.

This amendment is needed, at least for this year. I may have to put in a bill later to make it permanent or long term, but at least for this year, make it clear that if a county or a local government puts money into a project, they don't have to worry about the Federal Government having what is, in essence, a revisionary clause that if it is ever used for some purposes they don't agree to, somewhere down in the future, the property comes back to the Federal Government.

We can't use this program the way it was intended if we don't solve this problem. My amendment solves this problem in the short term. We can work to get additional language to make it better in the future, but right now, we need to do this.

Mr. Chair, I urge everyone to vote in favor of it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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