Legislation Introduced to Fix AML Process

WASHINGTON – Less than a week after hearing that the agency in charge of distributing Abandoned Mine Land (AML) funds plans to do so using a grant process, Wyoming and Montana senators put forth legislation to re-iterate congressional intent that AML money should be given to states with no strings attached. Period.

U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., introduced the bill with Senators Max Baucus, Jon Tester, both D-Mont., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo. The language would set the record straight once and for all with the Office of Surface Mining (OSM).

“The recent actions by OSM have been nothing short of an insult to the people of the state of Wyoming ,” Barrasso said. “The $580 million in AML funds belong to Wyoming . This bill will prevent faceless bureaucrats from hijacking Wyoming ’s money.”

“Only in the absurd world that is Washington could an agency believe that the word ‘payment’ means grant. When this bill passes, the confusion should be over and Wyoming will once and for all wash its hands of the bureaucratic shenanigans that have surrounded these funds,” said Enzi.

Baucus, who as incoming Finance Committee Chairman included the AML funding increase in end-of-the-year tax legislation in 2006, said the new legislation will “slice through the bureaucratic roadblock.”

“It’s baffling to me that these hurdles have been erected,” Baucus said. “Our intention was clear – that Montana and Wyoming were to receive the abandoned mines funding we are entitled to. It’s unfortunate that we must force these agencies to do the right thing. But that’s what we’re going to do."

The language of the bill states ‘all payments of this subsection to a certified State or Indian tribe shall be distributed as direct transfers of funds rather than in the form of grants.’

The senators are working with their Senate colleagues to find the best avenue to pass the bill before the end of the year.