{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.bennet.senate.gov/2024/08/01/press-releases-id-3fd9f35e-5b25-49e7-a2bf-4af12edde895/", "Bennet, Colleagues Celebrate Unanimous, Bipartisan Senate Passage of Legislation to Clean Up Abandoned Mines", "2024-08-01", "2024", "2024-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "CO", "Michael F. Bennet", "B001267", "www.bennet.senate.gov", "bennet", "https://www.bennet.senate.gov/news/page/", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, alongside U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), applauded the Senate\u2019s unanimous and bipartisan passage of the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act.\n\n\u201cThousands of abandoned mines in Colorado and across the American West threaten our watersheds and pollute our ecosystems,\u201d said Bennet. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for the strong bipartisan support to pass this legislation to make it easier for our state, local governments, and nonprofits to clean up these mines, help reduce pollution, and improve water quality.\u201d\n\n\u201cGood Samaritan organizations are ready to help clean up abandoned mines that are threatening our communities and polluting the land, water, fish, and wildlife we rely on. I\u2019m proud of the work we have done to advance our commonsense, bipartisan legislation to create a path for these groups to clean up sites in New Mexico and across our country,\u201d said Heinrich. \u201cEfforts to get this done started well before I came to Congress. It\u2019s been an honor to get it across the finish line in the Senate, and I won\u2019t stop working on this until it\u2019s law.\u201d\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s Senate passage of our Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act puts us one step closer to cutting the red tape that has prevented good faith actors from cleaning up long-abandoned hardrock mines,\u201d said Risch. \u201cI urge the House of Representatives to take up and pass this commonsense legislation to allow Good Samaritans to conduct this important remediation work.\u201d\n\nThere are thousands of abandoned hardrock mines across the country that pose environmental hazards. Organizations that have no legal or financial responsibility to an abandoned mine want to volunteer to remediate some of these sites. Unfortunately, liability rules would leave these \u2018Good Samaritans\u2019 legally responsible for all the pre-existing pollution from a mine, even though they had no involvement with the mine prior to cleaning it up.\n\nThe Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act creates a pilot permitting program to enable not-for-profit cleanup efforts to move forward, while ensuring Good Samaritans have the skills and resources to comply with federal oversight. This pilot program is designed for lower risk projects that will improve water and soil quality or otherwise protect human health.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:41:32Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.bennet.senate.gov/2024/08/01/press-releases-id-3fd9f35e-5b25-49e7-a2bf-4af12edde895/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9359109681099653, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}