Bill lets private firms help clean up old coal mines.
H.R. 167 — Community Reclamation Partnerships Act of 2025 · Filed by Darin LaHood (R-IL) · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill lets states hire private firms and groups. They clean up old coal mines and polluted water from mining before 1977. Private partners can sell things they find to help pay for cleanup. States must approve the deals and take legal risk. The government has 120 days to approve each project.
Who it affects
States, private cleanup firms, nonprofit groups, and towns near old coal mines are affected. Water and land near old mines could get better. States take on risk if something goes wrong.
One thing to notice
Private firms can make money from things they find during cleanup. States must take legal risk if the work causes harm. The bill skips some government checks that normally happen.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jan 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 3, 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”
- May 13, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection”
- May 13, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- old coal mines — Coal mines that are no longer in use and left behind.
- polluted water — Water that has been made dirty or unsafe by mining.
- private partners — Firms or groups hired by states to do cleanup work.
- legal risk — Responsibility if something goes wrong and causes harm.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (9,033 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 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 2026-09-18.
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