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The bill provides limited, expedited federal compensation to individuals and small businesses harmed by the Gold King Mine spill and guarantees funding up to a capped amount, but narrows the scope and amount of recoverable damages, restricts legal remedies, and uses emergency funding mechanisms that reduce budgetary transparency.
Homeowners, farmers, livestock grazers, and small recreation businesses can recover documented actual economic losses from the Gold King Mine spill, enabling direct financial relief for affected individuals and local businesses.
People harmed by the spill have clearer, faster procedural routes (administrative claim, FTCA, or civil action) with the Administrator required to decide administrative claims within 180 days, speeding resolution compared with typical litigation.
Taxpayers benefit from a statutory cap on total claims payments ($3.3 million), which limits the government's maximum fiscal exposure for these claims.
Claimants cannot recover CERCLA response (cleanup) costs, non‑economic harms (like emotional distress), interest, or punitive damages—substantially limiting the types and amounts of recoverable losses.
Accepting an administrative payment permanently releases all related claims against the United States and judicial review is narrowly confined to the administrative record and substantial evidence standard, restricting claimants' ability to obtain further relief.
Designating the full appropriation as an emergency and funding it from 'Treasury not otherwise appropriated' bypasses normal budget processes, which can increase deficit risk and reduce fiscal transparency for taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Allows EPA to settle certain denied or under-compensated Gold King Mine spill claims and provides up to $3.3M in emergency funds to pay eligible compensatory damages.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Jeff Hurd · Last progress February 13, 2025
Authorizes the EPA Administrator to review, settle, and pay certain denied or under-compensated claims for actual damages caused by the August 5, 2015 Gold King Mine release into the Bonita Peak Mining District, subject to defined eligibility rules and exclusions. Provides up to $3.3 million in emergency appropriations for payments and requires deadlines for agency decisions, a final-release requirement for paid claimants, limited judicial review, and a post-resolution report to Congress.