Under Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, as amended (OCSLA; 43 U.S.C. §1344), the Secretary of the Interior must prepare and maintain forward-looking plans—typically referred to as national programs or five-year programs—that indicate proposed public oil and gas lease sales in U.S. waters. In doing so, the Secretary must balance national interests in energy supply and environmental protection. The lead agency within the Department of the Interior (DOI or Interior) responsible for the program has been the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Under a July 2026 order issued by the Secretary, BOEM and a sister agency are being merged into a new agency within DOI to be called the Marine Minerals Administration. BOEM’s development of a five-year program typically has taken place over two or three years, during which successive drafts of the program are published for review and comment. At the end of the process, the Secretary must submit each program to the President and to Congress for a period of at least 60 days, after which the proposal may be approved by the Secretary and may take effect with no further regulatory or legislative action. In the past, BOEM also developed a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for the leasing program under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. §4321). The PEIS examined the potential environmental impacts from oil and gas exploration and development on the U.S. outer continental shelf and considered a reasonable range of alternatives to the proposed plan. Congress typically has been actively involved during the planning phases of BOEM’s five-year leasing programs. For example, some Members of Congress have conveyed their views on BOEM’s proposals by submitting public comments on draft versions of programs during formal comment periods. Congress also has evaluated programs in committee oversight hearings. Further, although Congress does not play a direct role under the OCSLA in the approval or disapproval of a leasing program, Congress has sometimes influenced the terms of five-year programs through legislation, such as legislation to mandate or prohibit lease sales in certain offshore areas. For example, in the 119th Congress, P.L. 119-21 mandated 12 lease sales (9 for the Gulf of America region and 3 for the Alaska region) in the 2024-2029 period, in addition to the 3 sales already scheduled by the Biden Administration in its 2024-2029 leasing program. Since 1980, 10 distinct five-year programs and a revised version of one program have been submitted to Congress. The five-year programs have reflected the offshore oil and gas leasing policies of different presidential Administrations, along with input from states, Members of Congress, and other stakeholders. Most recently, in September 2023, DOI submitted BOEM’s offshore oil and gas leasing program for 2024-2029, and then-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued a record of decision approving the program in December 2023. In November 2025, under the second Trump Administration, BOEM published a draft proposed program for 2026-2031 that would replace some years in the current 2024-2029 program. BOEM stated that it would not prepare a PEIS in conjunction with this program. For discussion of recent activities and issues for Congress, see CRS Report R44692, Five-Year Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing Program: Status and Issues in Brief.
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