The Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025 would nullify eight specific Presidential withdrawals of unleased offshore land — six made by Presidents Obama and Biden plus two by President Biden in January 2025 — that restricted oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf (Chukchi, Beaufort, North Aleutian, Northern Bering Sea areas), the Atlantic coast canyon complexes, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. Going forward, the bill would amend Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. § 1341) to cap any future presidential withdrawal at 150,000 acres per action, 20 years in duration, and 500,000 acres cumulative across a presidency without congressional approval. Before any withdrawal, the Secretary of the Interior would have to complete quantitative mineral resource assessments, economic/energy/national-security value reviews, and federal-revenue-impact assessments, and submit a report to Congress. The bill also creates an expedited congressional disapproval procedure (joint resolution, 20-day discharge with 30-senator petition, 10-hour debate cap) and bars judicial review of withdrawal determinations under the new procedure. Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana leads the bill with 19 Republican co-sponsors from coastal and energy-state districts.
Environmental Concerns
- Existing Arctic/Atlantic/Gulf offshore protections — Eight Obama, Biden, and January-2025 presidential withdrawals nullified (Chukchi, Beaufort, North Aleutian, Northern Bering Sea, Atlantic canyons, Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific)
- Presidential offshore-withdrawal authority — Capped at 150,000 acres per action, 20-year maximum, 500,000 acres cumulative without congressional approval
Transparency & Accountability
- Pre-withdrawal assessments — Quantitative mineral, economic, energy, national-security, and federal-revenue analyses required before any future presidential withdrawal
- Congressional disapproval procedure — New expedited joint-resolution process for Congress to reverse presidential offshore-land withdrawals
- Judicial review — Barred for any determination, finding, action, or omission under the new disapproval procedure
Congressional 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.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-01-16
- Date Added
- 2026-05-13
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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