Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce five unique Oregon tribal bills S. 814, S. 815, S. 816, S. 817, and S. 818, that each deliver on promises made to the tribes long ago. By introducing these bills today I am renewing my commitment to the five Oregon tribes who will benefit greatly from passage of these bills--the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

For the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, their bills put land into trust, the last two remaining federally-recognized Indian tribes in Oregon without a land base. The third bill amends the Restoration Act of the Coquille Indian Tribe to make forest management activities on tribal lands uniform with the management of other tribal forests. The final two bills streamline the Bureau of Indian Affairs process for putting land into trust for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. These five unique bills honor and respect tribal sovereignty and support each tribe's right to be self-sufficient, build their economies, and support and provide for their communities. I am pleased to be joined on these bills by my colleague Senator Merkley and look forward to working with our Senate and House colleagues to advance the bills and to finally send them to the President's desk.

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I am proud to introduce the Geothermal Production Expansion Act of 2015 with my colleagues Senators RISCH, MERKLEY, MURKOWSKI, and CRAPO.

This bipartisan bill will allow for the rapid expansion of already identified geothermal resources without the additional delays of competitive leasing and without opening up those adjacent properties to speculative bidders who have no interest in developing the resource. At the same time that the bill streamlines the leasing process, it also protects the taxpayer by requiring that developers pay fair market value for the new lease, and limiting the amount of adjacent Federal land that can be leased to 640 acres.

The Bureau of Land Management, which manages geothermal projects on federal land under lease agreements, estimates about 250 million acres of federal land contains geothermal power potential. Geothermal energy projects that are producing geothermal power under the BLM's management make up about half of the total geothermal generating capacity in the United States. This legislation takes an important step to speed the development of this tremendous clean energy potential on public lands, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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