Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-14)

Last week, the House of Representatives passed landmark legislation that will revamp the system by which oil and gas companies pay royalties for the natural resources extracted from land owned by American taxpayers. As a complement to those changes, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) is touting legislation she recently reintroduced (H.R. 435) that would help ensure that the federal government uses the most accurate methods to collect royalties on natural resources taken by oil and gas companies from taxpayer-owned land (link to bill).

Under this legislation, the National Academy of Engineering would conduct a study analyzing methods that could greatly improve the accuracy of royalty collection on the production of oil, condensate and natural gas under leases of Federal onshore and offshore lands and onshore Indian Tribal lands. With the completion of the study mandated by this new legislation, Congress, the Minerals Management Service, and the Bureau of Land Management would have a better understanding of changes that must be made to make the process more accurate and transparent.

"The House passed a vitally important part of royalty reform and this bill represents another vital component of it," said Maloney. "We will never know if American taxpayers are actually receiving their fair share if we don't know that royalties are being collected accurately. There may be piles of money owed to taxpayers and Indian Tribes left on the table because we don't accurately collect royalties."

Co-sponsors of the bill include: Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and John Conyers (D-MI).

Joe Soldevere is Press Secretary to Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-14)