S 5039

Introduced

License to Drill Act

To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to extend the period of time during which the Secretary of the Interior is required to collect a fee for each new application for a permit to drill, and for other purposes.

Introduced Jul 21, 2026

Latest action (Jul 29, 2026) Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.

Referred to

Energy and Natural Resources Committee

Policy area

Energy

Issues

Climate & Energy

Summary

Extends the deadline for the Secretary of the Interior to collect fees for new oil and gas drilling permit applications from 2026 to 2037.
Requires transfer of all fees collected for oil and gas permit applications to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund for fiscal years 2027 through 2037.
Updates related deadline provisions under the Mineral Leasing Act from 2026 to 2037 to align with the extended fee collection period.

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. Lee, Mike [R-UT] (R-UT)

Actions (3)

Jul 29, 2026 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably. · senate
Jul 21, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. · senate
Jul 21, 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.

Text versions (1)

Introduced in Senate · Jul 21, 2026

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Committee action

What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Business meeting to consider S.365 and H.R.1729, bills to amend the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to allow for additional entities to be eligible to complete the maintenance work on Bolts Ditch and the Bolts Ditch Headgate within the Holy Cross Wilderness, Colorado, S.764, to provide for the designation of certain wilderness areas, recreation management areas, and conservation areas in the State of Colorado, S.791, to establish the Justice Thurgood Marshall National Historic Site in the State of Maryland as an affiliated area of the National Park System, S.888, to designate certain land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service in the State of Oregon as wilderness and national recreation areas, to withdraw certain land located in Curry County and Josephine County, Oregon, from all forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and operation under the mineral leasing and geothermal leasing laws, S.945, to amend the Smith River National Recreation Area Act to include certain additions to the Smith River National Recreation Area, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain wild rivers in the State of Oregon, S.1005, to provide for conservation and economic development in the State of Nevada, S.1088, to provide that the memorial to commemorate the sacrifice and service of the women who worked on the home front to support the efforts of the United States military during World War II may be located on the National Mall, S.1195, to promote conservation, improve public land management, and provide for sensible development in Pershing County, Nevada, S.1257, to amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to authorize the use of funds for certain additional Carey Act projects, S.1341, to amend the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 to add certain land to the Sarvis Creek Wilderness, S.1349, to withdraw the National Forest System land in the Ruby Mountains subdistrict of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the National Wildlife Refuge System land in Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Elko and White Pine Counties, Nevada, from operation under the mineral leasing laws, S.1476, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain segments of the Gila River system in the State of New Mexico as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, to provide for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain Federal land in the State of New Mexico, S.1737, to designate and expand wilderness areas in Olympic National Forest in the State of Washington, and to designate certain rivers in Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park as wild and scenic rivers, S.1777, to amend the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 to expand the boundary of Joshua Tree National Park, to redesignate the Cottonwood Visitor Center at Joshua Tree National Park as the "Dianne Feinstein Visitor Center", S.1870, to adjust the boundary of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to include the Rim of the Valley Corridor, S.2498, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to extend certain leases within units of the National Park System without opening the lease to bidding, S.2767 and H.R.5254, bills to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement with the Gateway Arch Park Foundation to host private events in Gateway Arch National Park buildings, S.2801, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating the Canterbury Shaker Village National Heritage Area, S.2887, to amend the National Trails System Act to designate the Route 66 National Historic Trail, S.2933, to redesignate a playground in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in the State of West Virginia as the "Hearts of Gold Playground: In Honor of West Virginia Children and Families Impacted by Childhood Cancer", S.2968, to ensure access to certain public land, S.3194, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating certain land in California as the Monterey Bay National Heritage Area, S.3313 and H.R.6365, bills to require the Secretary of the Interior to issue a right-of-way for an emergency exit on certain National Park Service land in the State of Virginia, S.3409, to reaffirm that the Bureau of Reclamation retains exclusive ownership, operational control, and financial responsibility for the Lower Yellowstone Fish Bypass Channel, ensuring long-term conservation of the endangered pallid sturgeon and other native aquatic species in the Yellowstone River while protecting the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project and District from undue financial and operational burdens, S.3635 and H.R. 7250, bills to reauthorize the Fort Peck Reservation Rural Water System Act of 2000, S.3715 and H.R.6380, bills to establish the Chiricahua NEnergy and Natural Resources CommitteeJul 29, 2026Business meeting

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

July 21, 2026

Mr. Lee introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

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 “License to Drill Act”.

SEC. 2. BLM OIL AND GAS PERMIT PROCESSING FEE.

Section 35(d) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191(d)) is amended—

(1) in paragraph (1), by striking “2026” and inserting “2037”;

(2) in paragraph (3)—

(A) by striking “Of the fees collected under this subsection for a fiscal year, the” and inserting “The”; and

(B) by striking “transfer—” and all that follows through “the Fund” and inserting “transfer, for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2037, all of the fees collected under this subsection for each such fiscal year to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund”; and

(3) in paragraph (4), by striking “2026” and inserting “2037”. <all>

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Summary

Sponsor (1)

Actions (3)

Related bills (1)

Similar bills (6)

Text versions (1)

Committee action

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Full text

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