Oil and gas drilling fees locked in for 11 years.
H.R. 7831 — License to Drill Act · Filed by Mike Kennedy (R-UT) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 5, 2026 · Sent to president
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What it does
The bill extends the deadline for collecting drilling permit fees. It moves the deadline from 2026 to 2037. It creates a special fund called the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund. This fund holds the fees from 2027 to 2037.
Who it affects
Oil and gas companies that drill on federal land pay these fees. The federal government collects the money to process permits.
One thing to notice
The bill locks in the same fee amounts for 11 years without review. The fees go to a special agency fund instead of the general Treasury.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Mar 5, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 5, 2026 — 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”
- Mar 25, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- May 14, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 14, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent”
- Jun 2, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3757)”
- Jun 2, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent”
- Oct 15, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
6 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 6 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $5,980,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 30 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 82% of bills with any report.
Mike Kennedy, who sponsored the bill, received $532,000 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- American Petroleum Institute — $2,780,000 in 1 report
- Chevron U.S.A. Inc. — $1,670,000 in 1 report
- Conocophillips — $750,000 in 1 report
- American Exploration & Production Council — $500,000 in 1 report
- Independent Petroleum Association of America — $250,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- federal land — Land owned by the U.S. government, not by states or private people.
- permit — Official permission from the government to do something.
- BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund — A special account that holds drilling fees to pay for permit work.
- Treasury — The federal government's main money account.
- 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 (710 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
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