Late last night, the House Committee on Natural Resources released draft text for its portion of the FY2025 budget reconciliation bill. Under the budget resolution—Congress’s blueprint for the reconciliation package—the committee must identify at least $1 billion in deficit reductions between FY2025 and FY2034.  

Statement by Autumn Hanna, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense: 

The House Natural Resources Committee’s draft bill includes alarming provisions that will ultimately cost American taxpayers.  

It doesn’t have to be this way. Federal lands can be managed responsibly, and the onshore oil and gas program can generate substantial revenue—if done right. But this draft bill takes us backward. If the proposed royalty rate cuts and flawed leasing practices move forward, the outcome is predictable: poor returns for taxpayers and costly liabilities down the road. 

The draft proposes rolling back oil and gas royalty rates—a move that will cost federal and state taxpayers billions of dollars in lost revenue—and reviving noncompetitive leasing, which lets speculators lock up vast swaths of federal land for pennies on the dollar, often without ever producing a drop of oil.  

And let’s not pretend mandating new oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will save the day. Past lease sales in the Refuge were a bust—minimal interest, almost no revenue, and plenty of risk for taxpayers. Yet the draft doubles down on that failure and even redirects the lion’s share of future leasing revenues to the state, leaving the federal treasury with scraps after FY2034.  

Similar changes impacting offshore oil and gas development, coal leasing, and timber sales reveal an unsettling theme: more land handed over to industry with fewer safeguards and less scrutiny. These aren’t revenue provisions; they’re industry favors masquerading as fiscal policy. 

Lawmakers should reject any attempt to jam these policies into a budget deal. Reconciliation shouldn’t be a Trojan horse for giveaways and loopholes that bypass normal process and public scrutiny. America’s public lands and natural resources belong to the taxpayers—and they should not be sold off for bargain basement prices.  

Background: 

• Reconciliation: A Budget Tool Turned Political Power Play 

• TCS Statement in Response to the FY2025 Budget Resolution 

• Modernized Oil & Gas Leasing: Fair Market Rates Earn Taxpayers Valuable Revenue 

• Learning from Past Mistakes: Arctic Refuge Leasing is Not a Reliable Revenue Offset