The License to Drill Act extends the period during which the federal government collects application fees from oil and gas companies seeking to drill on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The fee collection expiration is pushed from 2026 to 2037. Starting in fiscal year 2027, all fees collected — rather than just a portion — will be deposited into the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund, which is used to speed up government review of drilling permit applications on federal land. This gives BLM more dedicated resources to process oil and gas permit requests over the next decade.
Corporate Benefits
- Oil and gas industry permit access — Application-fee revenue dedicated to faster federal drilling-permit processing through 2037
Environmental Concerns
- BLM permit-processing fund — all drilling application fees redirected to permit fund through 2037, increasing resources for approving oil/gas permits on federal public land
Congressional Summary
License to Drill ActThis bill extends through FY2037 the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) authority to collect oil and gas permit processing fees. For each new permit application, BLM collects a fee that is transferred to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund. (Under current law, the fees are authorized through FY2026.)
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to House
- Action Date
- 2026-05-20
- Date Added
- 2026-05-30
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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