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

(a) In general: All money from sales, bonuses, royalties (including interest collected under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982), and rentals of public lands under this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 goes into the U.S. Treasury. Then, subject to (b): 50 percent goes to the state (other than Alaska) where the leased land or minerals sit. Since January 1, 1976, states must spend this money as their legislature directs, giving priority to local areas hit socially or economically by mineral development, for (i) planning, (ii) building and maintaining public facilities, and (iii) providing public services. Except for money from Alaska, 40 percent goes into the Reclamation Fund created by the 1902 Reclamation Act. For Alaska, 90 percent goes to the State of Alaska, for its legislature to decide how to use. However, money from naval petroleum reserve lands goes to the Treasury as "miscellaneous receipts" under 10 U.S.C. § 8733(b). Any money under this chapter or the Geothermal Steam Act not otherwise assigned by this section also becomes miscellaneous receipts. Payments to states must happen by the last business day of the month the Treasury confirms receiving the money — except for money under dispute, which is held in a suspense account until resolved. The Treasury must confirm receiving new money within 10 days. Once a disputed amount is resolved and owed to a state, it must be paid by the last business day of that month, and it earns interest the whole time it's held in suspense. (b) Deduction for administrative costs: Starting in fiscal year 2014 and every year after, state payments are reduced by 2 percent to cover the United States' administrative and other costs of running this program. That 2 percent goes into the Treasury's miscellaneous receipts. (c) Rentals received on or after August 8, 2005: (1) Despite the general rule in (a), rentals from leases in any state other than Alaska, received on or after August 8, 2005, go into the Treasury to be split under (2). (2) Of that money: (A) 50 percent goes to the state where the leased land sits; and (B) 50 percent goes into a new Treasury fund called the "BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund" (the "Fund"). (3) Use of fund: The Fund is available to the Secretary of the Interior, without needing further congressional approval or a fiscal-year deadline, to coordinate and process oil and gas permits on federal and Indian trust mineral land. The Secretary must split the Fund into a Rental Account, made of rental money collected under this section, and a Fee Account, made of fees collected under (d). (4) Rental account: The Secretary uses the Rental Account for coordinating and processing oil and gas permits at the Project offices named under 42 U.S.C. § 15924(d), and for training programs to build expertise in that work. When deciding how to split the Rental Account among Project offices each year, the Secretary must consider how many drilling-permit applications each office got the year before, each office's backlog of those applications, public industry forecasts for oil and gas development under each office's area, and any chances to partner with local industry groups and schools on training programs. (5) Fee account: The Secretary uses the Fee Account for coordinating and processing oil and gas permits on federal and Indian trust mineral land, and must send at least 75 percent of the fees an office collects for processing permit applications back to the State office in the state where the fees were collected. (d) BLM oil and gas permit processing fee: (1) In general: No matter what other laws say, for each fiscal year from 2016 through 2026, the Secretary — through the Bureau of Land Management's Director — must collect a fee for each new drilling-permit application submitted. (2) Amount: The fee is $9,500 for each new application, adjusted upward for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, starting from October 1, 2015. (3) Use: Each year, the Secretary must transfer collected fees: for fiscal years 2016 through 2019, 15 percent to the field offices that collected them, to be used, subject to appropriation, for processing protests, leases, and permits, and 85 percent to the Fund; and for fiscal years 2020 through 2026, all of the fees go to the Fund. (4) Additional costs: During fiscal years 2016 through 2026, the Secretary cannot put in place a new rule that would raise fees to cover extra permit-processing costs.