Oil and gas companies pay drilling fees through 2037 instead of 2026.
S. 5039 — License to Drill Act · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · Introduced Jul 21, 2026 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill extends a fee that oil and gas companies pay for drilling permits. The fees go to the Bureau of Land Management. That agency processes permit applications. Money from these fees goes into a special fund. The fund helps the agency work faster on permits.
Who it affects
Oil and gas companies pay the fees. The Bureau of Land Management gets the money. Communities near drilling sites may be affected by faster approvals.
One thing to notice
The bill locks in permit funding for 11 years without Congress approving money each year.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 21, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 21, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- 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.
Words to know
- Bureau of Land Management — A government agency that manages public land and approves drilling permits.
- permit — Official permission from the government to do something, like drill for oil or gas.
- fee — Money a company pays to apply for or use a government service.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (710 characters) on Aug 12, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-11-01.
“Oil and gas companies pay drilling fees through 2037 instead of 2026.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5039/simple Report an error
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