WASHINGTON – Today, President Donald Trump signed the License to Drill Act into law, legislation sponsored by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and Representative Mike Kennedy (R-UT).
The License to Drill Act extends the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) authority to collect drilling permit processing fees through fiscal year 2037. The legislation directs those fees to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund.
“American energy producers already pay the fees that fund the processing of their drilling permits. The License to Drill Act keeps that industry-funded system in place, giving the Bureau of Land Management the resources to process applications without unnecessary delays,” said Chairman Mike Lee. “There’s much more work to do to fix our broken permitting system, but this is another important step toward unleashing American energy. I thank President Trump for signing this legislation into law, and I look forward to building on this progress.”
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources unanimously advanced the License to Drill Act on July 29, 2026. On September 30th, the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent.
The License to Drill Act’s enactment comes as Chairman Lee leads a bipartisan effort to fix America’s broken permitting system. On September 30, Chairman Lee joined Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in introducing the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026