Delegation to Feds: Write the AML Check Now, Not Later

Press Release

U.S. Senators Mike Enzi, John Barrasso and Representative Barbara Cubin, all R-Wyo., are continuing to pressure the government agency in charge of doling out years of back payments to Wyoming from the Abandoned Mine Land Fund.

The Wyoming delegation, who helped write the original legislation to free up about $550 million owed to Wyoming, is reiterating the congressional intent of the law and demanding Wyoming get back and future money in direct payments, not grants.

"We worked in good faith with the Office of Surface Mining to pass legislation that would accomplish our goal of returning the money owed to our state with no strings attached and that would ensure that future monies promised to our state were not withheld in the future," the delegation wrote in a letter sent to the Director of the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) on Sept 7. "We look forward to the release of a rule that returns funding to states as Congress intended - in a direct payment form with no strings attached."

The OSM is scheduled to publish rules at the end of the month directing how the AML money will be administered to states.

Wyoming's legislature is set to receive the $550 million owed to the state in seven equal installments beginning in October 2007 and up to $1.6 billion over 15 years. If the money is paid directly to Wyoming the state can earn interest on the funds, not the federal government, according to the delegation.

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