Arizona county buys federal land for solar power and jobs
H.R. 1043 — La Paz County Solar Energy and Job Creation Act · Filed by Paul Gosar (R-AZ) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 6, 2025 · Signed
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What it does
The Interior Department will sell about 3,400 acres of land in Arizona to La Paz County. The county will pay fair market value. The county plans to use it for solar power projects and create jobs. The sale protects Native American sacred objects. It keeps out land with big nature or wildlife value.
Who it affects
La Paz County people may get new jobs from solar projects. The county will own the land instead of the federal government. Native American tribes have a say in protecting sacred objects.
One thing to notice
Once the county owns the land, it is no longer under federal planning rules. The Secretary of the Interior picks which land has enough sacred or nature value to keep out.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Feb 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent”
- Jul 21, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3498-3499)”
- Jul 21, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Gosar moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Dec 16, 2025 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S8766-8768)”
- Dec 18, 2025 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Dec 29, 2025 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-68”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $30,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 7 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Paul Gosar, who sponsored the bill, received $87,570 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- La Paz County, Arizona — $30,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Interior Department — The federal agency that manages public lands and natural resources.
- fair market value — The price a buyer and seller agree on when both have good information.
- solar power — Power made from sunlight.
- sacred objects — Things made or used by Native American tribes with spiritual meaning.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,615 characters) on Apr 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-02.
“Arizona county buys federal land for solar power and jobs” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1043/simple Report an error
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