Coal companies get 10-year payment plan on federal lease bonuses
S. 4410 — A bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to provide for the payment of bonus payments of certain coal leases issued under that Act. · Filed by John Barrasso (R-WY) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 28, 2026 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill amends the Mineral Leasing Act to allow coal lease bonus payments to be spread over 10 equal annual installments instead of being paid upfront. The first payment is due with the bid; the remaining nine are paid annually. This reduces the immediate cash outlay required from coal companies winning federal lease auctions.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to defer bonus payments owed to the federal government for coal leases, effectively providing favorable financing terms to coal companies at public expense. This is a subsidy disguised as a payment-schedule amendment.
What the text implies
- Deferring payments reduces the present value of federal revenue from coal leases, effectively subsidizing coal companies' capital costs.
- Nine-year payment deferral increases default risk; if a lessee becomes insolvent or abandons operations, the government may recover only partial bonus payments.
- The amendment applies only to coal leases under a 'system of deferred bonus payment' — the bill does not specify which leases qualify, leaving implementation ambiguity.
- Spreading payments over 10 years may reduce the fiscal impact visible in any single budget year, potentially obscuring the true cost to taxpayers.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The public owns the coal being leased and receives bonus payments as compensation. Deferring those payments over 10 years reduces the present value of revenue the federal government (and thus taxpayers) receive, while providing favorable financing to coal companies. The deferred structure also increases default risk — if a lessee fails in years 2–10, the government may not collect the full bonus owed.
Who stands to gain
- coal mining companies
- coal lease bidders
Named in the bill
Mineral Leasing Act, Section 2(a), coal leases, federal government, coal industry
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Apr 28, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 28, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (text: CR S2083)”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held”
- Jul 29, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
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 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $820,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 67 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.
John Barrasso, the sponsor, reported $408,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Mining Association — $820,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 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 (382 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.
“Coal companies get 10-year payment plan on federal lease bonuses” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4410 Report an error
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