Stansbury Introduces CLAIM Act to Advance Fair Mining Claims and Protect Public Lands

Washington, D.C. - Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) today introduced the Conserving Lands and Areas Incompatible with Mining (CLAIM) Act of 2025. This legislation seeks to modernize mining fee practices on federal lands and ensure the public is properly compensated after years of taxpayer giveaways to large corporate mining companies.

In a massive giveaway to mining companies that were already benefitting from an outdated mining fee system from the 1800s, Trump and the GOPs Big Ugly Bill-provided additional massive giveaways to large multinational mining corporations. This includes opening lands to extensive mining and lowering royalty rates, essentially allowing corporations to hold valuable mining claims on public lands while paying egregiously low fees. As a result, thousands of acres and sensitive ecosystems are at risk, taxpayers have been shortchanged, and critical cleanup and conservation needs have gone unmet.

The CLAIM Act seeks to correct these failures by modernizing mining claim maintenance fees and ensuring that companies pay a fair price for the privilege of accessing claims on lands owned by the American people-particularly those in proximity to important places like national parks, monuments, and culturally significant sites. Protecting sensitive public lands at this moment from mining operations is especially important as the Administration has targeted vast public lands for sale and lease, including even some of our most sacred landscapes. This includes sites such as Oak Flat in Arizona which is sacred to multiple Apache Nations in Arizona and New Mexico.

"As Trump is prepared to sell our most precious public lands to the lowest bidder, we're fighting to protect our lands and the public trust," said Rep. Stansbury."With the CLAIM Act, we're working to protect sacred and important landscapes from unchecked development, while ensuring taxpayers get a fair return for the resources that belong to all of us."

This bill is also cosponsored byRep. Jared Huffman (D-CA).

The legislation is endorsed by The National Parks Conservation Association, The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, The Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, and The Wilderness Society.

Statement by Charlie Olsen, Energy and Public Lands Policy Manager at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA): "If we don't act now, our national parks risk becoming industrial mining zones. We know the next boom-and-bust rush for critical minerals is coming for our public lands, and this bill takes long-overdue steps to protect our national parks and our American heritage. The CLAIM Act is a promising step that brings balance to our mining system, steering new mining claims away from national parks and ensuring the public isn't the only one left footing the cleanup costs. Nobody wants mining in or near our national parks. We urge Congress to support commonsense reforms like this to better balance responsible mining practices with the preservation of our exceptional national parks."

Statement by Emily Thompson, Executive Director of The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks:"We should not simply sell off our public land to the highest bidder. It's bad policy and terrible for our public lands. For more than a century, the federal mining system has operated on an outdated premise: that public lands should be handed over-effectively free of charge-to whoever stakes a claim first. This outdated system leaves taxpayers footing the bill for abandoned mines, environmental damage, and the protection of cultural resources-while some of the most valuable public lands in the country are tied up by speculative claims. The CLAIM Act would finally bring this antiquated system into the 21st century. By creating a tiered claim maintenance fee structure that aligns fees with land value, the bill discourages mining speculators from sitting on claims near national parks, monuments, and other irreplaceable landscapes. Congress should pass it without delay."

Statement by Tremayne Nez, Policy Director at The Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund (NOAAF): "Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund (NOAAF) support the Conserving Lands and Areas Incompatible with Mining (CLAIM) Act because our public lands, waters, and sacred places deserve protections that advance responsible stewardship for future generations. For Tribal Nations and Native communities, this bill helps expose how much of our homelands are being given away to mining interests in the rush for harmful resource extraction, with no regard to the people who rely on these lands. It also ensures safeguards from extraction near National Parks, monuments, and Tribally significant areas."

Statement by Isabella Jaramillo, Government Relations Representative at The Wilderness Society: "We applaud Representative Stansbury for taking this step toward long-awaited reforms to the outdated federal mining system, which currently hands public lands over to mining companies with very few safeguards in place. The CLAIM Act would discourage mining claims from some of our most special public lands, ensure companies clean up after themselves and pay a responsible fee to hold claims. Congress should pass this bill and reject threats to our freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water and access public lands, all in the name of a fictitious energy emergency. Currently, under the outdated 1872 Mining Law, mining companies pay a flat annual fee of just $200 for up to 20 acres, regardless of whether a claim is located next to a national park or on remote public land. This system effectively subsidizes private profit at public expense and deprives taxpayers of billions in potential revenue."

Dr. Valerie Grussing, Executive Director for Legislative Affairs & Strategic Partnerships at the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO): "Because America's public lands are part of the ancestral homelands of our Tribal Nations, it only makes sense to dedicate a portion of the fees for mining leases on those lands to support the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers who review those leases to ensure sacred places and cultural resources are protected. We appreciate the work of Congresswoman Stansbury to introduce this important legislation and look forward to continuing to work with her on this issue."

The CLAIM Act introduces an updated mine claim maintenance fee structure that:

• Aligns fees with land value, discouraging speculative claims near national parks and monuments.
• Creates a dedicated funding stream for abandoned mine cleanup, Tribal cultural resource protection, and other vital programs.
• Ensures industry pays responsibly for the privilege of accessing claims on lands with exceptional public value.
• Would double revenue generated by the annual claim maintenance fee to the American taxpayer.

The bill text can be found HERE.

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