Bill would stop oil companies from skipping royalty payments.
H.R. 10256 — Taxpayer Relief from Big Oil Act · Filed by Maxine Dexter (D-OR) · 19 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 3, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill ends federal programs that let oil and gas companies avoid paying the government. It covers oil and gas taken from public land and water. It requires the Interior Department to set standard limits on deductions. Companies cannot deduct more than 30 percent of oil value or real costs, whichever is lower. The bill also requires annual reports to Congress about all royalty relief requests and approvals.
Who it affects
Oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska would pay more. Citizens own the public oil and gas resources. More government revenue comes from those resources.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say what happens to royalty relief agreements already in place.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
19 cosponsors: 19 Democrats.
- Sep 3, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 3, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- royalty relief — A program that lets companies pay less to the government for oil and gas they take from public land.
- Interior Department — The federal agency that manages public land and natural resources.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,179 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
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