30 U.S.C. § 191: Disposition of moneys received

All money received from sales, bonuses, royalties including interest charges collected under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 [ 30 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.], and rentals of the public lands under the provisions of this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 [ 30 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.], shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States; and, subject to the provisions of subsection (b), 50 per centum thereof shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State other than Alaska within the boundaries of which the leased lands or deposits are or were located; said moneys paid to any of such States on or after January 1, 1976 , to be used by such State and its subdivisions, as the legislature of the State may direct giving priority to those subdivisions of the State socially or economically impacted by development of minerals leased under this chapter, for (i) planning, (ii) construction and maintenance of public facilities, and (iii) provision of public service; and excepting those from Alaska, 40 per centum thereof shall be paid into, reserved, appropriated, as part of the reclamation fund created by the Act of Congress known as the Reclamation Act, approved June 17, 1902 , and of those from Alaska, 90 per centum thereof shall be paid to the State of Alaska for disposition by the legislature thereof: Provided , That all moneys which may accrue to the United States under the provisions of this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 from lands within the naval petroleum reserves shall be deposited in the Treasury as “miscellaneous receipts”, as provided by section 8733(b) of title 10 . All moneys received under the provisions of this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 not otherwise disposed of by this section shall be credited to miscellaneous receipts. Payments to States under this section with respect to any moneys received by the United States, shall be made not later than the last business day of the month in which such moneys are warranted by the United States Treasury to the Secretary as having been received, except for any portion of such moneys which is under challenge and placed in a suspense account pending resolution of a dispute. Such warrants shall be issued by the United States Treasury not later than 10 days after receipt of such moneys by the Treasury. Moneys placed in a suspense account which are determined to be payable to a State shall be made not later than the last business day of the month in which such dispute is resolved. Any such amount placed in a suspense account pending resolution shall bear interest until the dispute is resolved. In determining the amount of payments to the States under this section, beginning in fiscal year 2014 and for each year thereafter, the amount of such payments shall be reduced by 2 percent for any administrative or other costs incurred by the United States in carrying out the program authorized by this chapter, and the amount of such reduction shall be deposited to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury. Notwithstanding the first sentence of subsection (a), any rentals received from leases in any State (other than the State of Alaska) on or after August 8, 2005 , shall be deposited in the Treasury, to be allocated in accordance with paragraph (2). 50 percent shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State within the boundaries of which the leased land is located or the deposits were derived; and 50 percent shall be deposited in a special fund in the Treasury, to be known as the “BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund” (referred to in this subsection as the “Fund”). The Fund shall be available to the Secretary of the Interior for expenditure, without further appropriation and without fiscal year limitation, for the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land. a Rental Account (referred to in this subsection as the “Rental Account”) comprised of rental receipts collected under this section; and a Fee Account (referred to in this subsection as the “Fee Account”) comprised of fees collected under subsection (d). the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land under the jurisdiction of the Project offices identified under section 15924(d) of title 42 ; and training programs for development of expertise related to coordinating and processing oil and gas use authorizations. the number of applications for permit to drill received in a Project office during the previous fiscal year; the backlog of applications described in clause (i) in a Project office; publicly available industry forecasts for development of oil and gas resources under the jurisdiction of a Project office; and any opportunities for partnership with local industry organizations and educational institutions in developing training programs to facilitate the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations. The Secretary shall use the Fee Account for the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land. The Secretary shall transfer not less than 75 percent of the revenues collected by an office for the processing of applications for permits to the State office of the State in which the fees were collected. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2026, the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall collect a fee for each new application for a permit to drill that is submitted to the Secretary. The amount of the fee shall be $9,500 for each new application, as indexed for United States dollar inflation from October 1, 2015 (as measured by the Consumer Price Index). 15 percent to the field offices that collected the fees and used to process protests, leases, and permits under this chapter, subject to appropriation; and 85 percent to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund established under subsection (c)(2)(B) (referred to in this subsection as the “Fund”); and for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2026, all of the fees to the Fund. During each of fiscal years of 2016 through 2026, the Secretary shall not implement a rulemaking that would enable an increase in fees to recover additional costs related to processing applications for permits to drill. Section 10201 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 ( Public Law 103–66 ; 107 Stat. 407 ) amended section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act ( 30 U.S.C. 191 ) to change the sharing of onshore mineral revenues and revenues from geothermal steam from a 50:50 split between the Federal Government and the States to a complicated formula that entailed deducting from the State share of leasing revenues ‘50 percent of the portion of the enacted appropriations of the Department of the Interior and any other agency during the preceding fiscal year allocable to the administration of all laws providing for the leasing of any onshore lands or interest in land owned by the United States for the production of the same types of minerals leasable under this Act or of geothermal steam, and to enforcement of such laws * * *’. There is no legislative record to suggest a sound public policy rationale for deducting prior-year administrative expenses from the sharing of current-year receipts, indicating that this change was made primarily for budget scoring reasons. The system put in place by this change in law has proved difficult to administer and has given rise to disputes between the Federal Government and the States as to the nature of allocable expenses. Federal accounting systems have proven to be poorly suited to breaking down administrative costs in the manner required by the law. Different Federal agencies implementing this law have used varying methodologies to identify allocable costs, resulting in an inequitable distribution of costs during fiscal years 1994 through 1996. In November 1997, the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior found that ‘the congressionally approved method for cost sharing deductions effective in fiscal year 1997 may not accurately compute the deductions’. Given the lack of a substantive rationale for the 1993 change in law and the complexity and administrative burden involved, a return to the sharing formula prior to the enactment of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 [ Aug. 10, 1993 ] is justified.”