Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a coordinated federal effort to identify and prioritize cleanup of abandoned uranium and hardrock mines—potentially improving health, environment, and local contracting—while relying on future appropriations and limited enforcement authority, which may delay or limit actual remediation outcomes.
Tribal communities and residents on tribal lands (including the Navajo Nation) will get a coordinated federal plan and resources to assess and begin cleaning abandoned uranium and hardrock mine sites, improving local health and water safety.
States, local governments, and tribes receive technical and administrative assistance to carry out cleanup actions, easing their administrative burden and helping accelerate remediation work.
The bill prioritizes assessment and cleanup of sites with no potentially responsible party, increasing the chance that long-neglected contaminated sites—especially in rural and tribal areas—get addressed.
The planning and reporting do not guarantee funding—cleanup timelines remain subject to congressional appropriations and potentially responsible party contributions, so promised remediation may be delayed for tribal and rural communities.
The bill does not create new regulatory authority or default cleanup standards, limiting the Office's ability to enforce uniform cleanup outcomes across sites and potentially leaving communities with uneven protections.
Establishing a new Office and implementing the plan may increase federal administrative costs and could require new appropriations, increasing costs borne by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced September 9, 2025 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress November 20, 2025
Creates a new Office of Mountains, Deserts, and Plains inside the EPA unit that handles solid waste programs to coordinate and support cleanup of legacy hardrock and uranium mine contamination on federal, state, Tribal, local, and private lands (including water resources and sites in Indian country and Navajo Nation abandoned uranium mine sites). The office will identify and annually publish prioritized mine sites, share best practices and technologies for assessment and cleanup, support government-to-government Tribal consultation, develop coordinated interagency 10-year cleanup plans for Navajo Nation abandoned uranium mine sites (first plan due Sept 30, 2028), provide technical and administrative assistance, and coordinate with several federal agencies while encouraging small business contracting consistent with procurement law. The law does not create new regulatory authority or default cleanup standards, does not appropriate money, and requires reporting to relevant congressional committees about priorities, methods, and plan status.