Congress moves to reopen federal waters to oil and gas drilling
S. 104 — Overturn Biden’s Offshore Energy Ban Act · Filed by Ted Cruz (R-TX) · Introduced Jan 15, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill voids two presidential memoranda issued on January 6, 2025, that withdrew large areas of the outer Continental Shelf (in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Pacific, and Bering Sea) from oil and natural gas leasing. By voiding those withdrawal orders, the bill restores those areas to potential oil and gas development, allowing the federal government to lease them for energy extraction.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to restore federal ocean areas to oil and gas leasing by voiding environmental withdrawal orders. It is a direct reversal of a conservation action, benefiting the energy extraction industry.
What the text implies
- Restoring these areas to leasing does not guarantee immediate development; companies must still bid and win leases. However, the bill removes the legal barrier that prevented any leasing, materially shifting the regulatory baseline in favor of extraction.
- The bill applies retroactively to memoranda signed January 6, 2025 — very recent actions — suggesting a rapid legislative reversal of a newly issued executive order, which may signal heightened political conflict over offshore energy policy.
- Bering Sea restoration is particularly significant: that region has unique ecological sensitivity and indigenous subsistence-use interests; restoring it to leasing may trigger conflicts with Alaska Native communities and marine conservation advocates.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose environmental and climate protections that the withdrawn areas provided. Restoring these areas to oil and gas leasing increases fossil fuel extraction on federal lands, raising greenhouse gas emissions and climate risk. The primary beneficiaries are oil and gas companies and energy producers, not the general public.
Who stands to gain
- oil and gas exploration and production companies
- offshore drilling contractors
- energy services firms
- fossil fuel lease bidders
Named in the bill
U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Department of Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Where it stands
- Jan 15, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 15, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $500,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 24 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Ted Cruz, the sponsor, reported $531,115 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Independent Petroleum Association of America — $500,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 18, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (800 characters) on Jun 8, 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 Dec 2025 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 18, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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