Federal Cost Sharing

Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, the federal government is to share the cost of state administration of the program.  However, federal appropriations for state regulatory programs have in recent years fallen short of the matching monies required.  Failure of the federal government to provide its share of programs funds will result in diminished state capabilities to enforce the Act and ultimately federalization of such programs with the commensurate increase in cost to the federal government. 

It is a priority of the Reclamation Committee to assure adequate federal contributions to the funding of state regulatory programs under the Surface Mining Act.