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To amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands to make that Act applicable to hardrock minerals, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands to extend its provisions to hardrock minerals, which include deposits of base metals, precious metals, industrial metals, and gemstones found in sedimentary and other rocks. The bill excludes coal, oil, natural gas, and certain other mineral materials from its hardrock mineral definition. By making the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands applicable to hardrock minerals, the bill would allow leasing of hardrock mineral deposits on federally acquired lands under the same regulatory framework currently used for oil, gas, and other minerals.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Cotton, Tom [R-AR] (R-AR)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Tom Cotton’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $80,461
- APOLLO MANAGEMENT $25,600
- APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT $19,800
- BRODIE GENERATIONAL CAPITAL PARTNERS $13,200
- APOLLO $11,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Tom Cotton → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jan 28, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. · senate
- Jan 28, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 28, 2026
Mr. Cotton introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands to make that Act applicable to hardrock minerals, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Mineral Extraction for Renewable Industry and Critical Applications Act of 2026” or the “MERICA Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. APPLICATION OF MINERAL LEASING ACT FOR ACQUIRED LANDS TO HARDROCK MINERALS.
The Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands is amended—
(1) in section 2 (30 U.S.C. 351)—
(A) in the sixth sentence, by striking “The term” and all that follows through “embrace” and inserting the following:
“(5) Oil.—The term ‘oil’ means”;
(B) in the fifth sentence, by striking “‘Lease”’ and inserting the following:
“(3) Lease.—The term ‘lease”’;
(C) by striking the fourth sentence and inserting the following:
“(4) Mineral leasing laws.—The term ‘mineral leasing laws’ means—
“(A) the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.);
“(B) the Act of April 17, 1926 (44 Stat. 301, chapter 158; 30 U.S.C. 271 et seq.);
“(C) the Act of February 7, 1927 (44 Stat. 1057, chapter 66; 30 U.S.C. 281 et seq.); and
“(D) all Acts amendatory or supplementary to any of the Acts described in subparagraphs (A) through
(D).”;
(D) in the third sentence, by striking “‘Secretary”’ and inserting the following:
“(6) Secretary.—The term ‘Secretary”’;
(E) in the second sentence—
(i) by striking “(36 Stat.” and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting “(commonly known as the ‘Weeks Law’) (36 Stat. 961, chapter 186; 16 U.S.C. 552 et seq.).”; and
(ii) by striking “‘Acquired lands’ or ‘lands acquired by the United States’ include” and inserting the following:
“(1) Acquired lands; lands acquired by the united states.—The terms ‘acquired lands’ and ‘lands acquired by the United States’ mean”;
(F) in the first sentence, by striking “As used in this Act ‘United States”’ and inserting the following: “In this Act:
“(7) United states.—The term ‘United States”’;
(G) by moving the paragraphs so as to appear in numerical order; and
(H) by inserting after paragraph (1) (as so designated) the following:
“(2) Hardrock mineral.—
“(A) In general.—The term ‘hardrock mineral’ includes deposits of—
“(i) minerals found in sedimentary or other rocks;
“(ii) base metals;
“(iii) precious metals;
“(iv) industrial metals; and
“(v) precious and semi-precious gemstones.
“(B) Exclusions.—The term ‘hardrock mineral’ does not include deposits of—
“(i) coal;
“(ii) oil;
“(iii) oil shale;
“(iv) gas;
“(v) sodium;
“(vi) potassium;
“(vii) sulfur; or
“(viii) mineral materials subject to disposition under the Act of July 31, 1947 (commonly known as the ‘Materials Act of 1947’) (61 Stat. 681, chapter 406; 30 U.S.C. 601 et seq.).”; and
(2) in section 3 (30 U.S.C. 352), in the first sentence, by striking “and sulfur” and inserting “sulfur, and hardrock minerals”. <all>
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