House adopts bill requiring local governments to remerge mineral rights with surface landowners

The House on the floor adopted House File 2531, agreeing to Senate Amendment H8478, a bill requiring local governments to remerge mineral rights they hold with the corresponding surface landowners at no cost. Representative Harris introduced the measure and urged the chamber to concur in the Senate amendment.

"This is our mineral rights bill that came back from the senate," Representative Harris said, describing the core requirement that local governments return or remerge mineral rights they own with surface landowners and noting that the amendment aligns the mineral-rights definition with other parts of state code. Harris also said the Senate had added an immediate effective date.

A fellow member urged support for the technical amendment, calling it a sensible change that strengthens the bill’s clarity. Harris thanked Senator Driscoll for her work on the bill and said local constituents had urged the change.

The clerk read the bill caption, which describes an act relating to mineral interests owned by counties and cities and including effective date provisions. The House voted and the clerk reported the tally as 182 ayes, 1 no, and 17 absent. The presiding officer declared that the bill had received a constitutional majority and had passed; the title was agreed to and the measure was ordered messaged to the Senate.

The bill’s principal effect, as stated on the floor, is to require local governments to transfer or remerge mineral interests they own to the corresponding surface landowners at no cost; the amendment added a technical code-definition alignment and an immediate effective date.