Westerman in September. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman has a list of specific projects he's looking to get approved — including the controversial Twin Metals and Resolution Copper mines — in the GOP's spending and tax bill.
Why it matters: Party-line reconciliation bills are governed by strict budget rules, so Republicans are searching for politically viable ways to generate pay-for revenue through Westerman's committee.
Driving the news: Westerman named Minnesota's Twin Metals and Arizona's Resolution Copper — both years in the making — as possibilities, as well as Alaska's Ambler Road project.
- "There are a lot of very specific things we could look at, possibly for reconciliation, that we know can have a budget impact … We can take kind of a rifle shot on mining projects like that," he told reporters this afternoon.
- He said his list of possibilities includes other types of energy projects as well, though he didn't provide specifics.
Rep. Pete Stauber, an ardent champion of Twin Metals, declined to address Westerman's remarks.
- "I'm not going to comment other than with reconciliation, a lot of things are on the table," Stauber said.
- The Biden administration in 2023 blocked Twin Metals, a proposed copper-nickel project in a national forest at the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Between the lines: Provisions of a reconciliation bill must impact the federal budget, generally either through new spending or taxes.
- Westerman's argument is that these kinds of major mines generate tax revenue if they're approved.
- "[Mining] may be the largest economic development tool we have at our disposal in the whole country," he said.
That theory historically hasn't been effective with the Senate parliamentarian, who determines which provisions are eligible for reconciliation under the so-called Byrd rule.
- But Westerman is also leading a Republican Study Committee working group that is looking at creative ways of scoring their policy proposals.
- "We're asking a lot of outside organizations to be available, to have expertise in certain policy areas, to take this text and look at it policy by policy, and say this is what the budget impact is.
Yes, but: Westerman said he doesn't think a new hardrock mining royalty is needed (he had previously floated one as a way to raise revenue).
- "If you look at the macro economic impact of mining and everything that stems from that, I think there's a lot bigger budget apple out there than just some kind of minor royalty," he said.
- When Democrats proposed a royalty back in 2021, they said it would have raised $2 billion over 10 years.
Axios Pro's Daniel Moore contributed reporting.
