At any time after December 2, 1980, the President may transmit a recommendation to the Congress that mineral exploration, development, or extraction not permitted under this Act or other applicable law shall be permitted in a specified area of the lands referred to in section 3231 of this title. Notice of such transmittal shall be published in the Federal Register. No recommendation of the President under this section may be transmitted to the Congress before ninety days after publication in the Federal Register of notice of his intention to submit such recommendation.

A recommendation may be transmitted to the Congress under subsection (a) if the President finds that, based on the information available to him—

(1) there is an urgent national need for the mineral activity; and

(2) such national need outweighs the other public values of the public lands involved and the potential adverse environmental impacts which are likely to result from the activity.

Together with his recommendation, the President shall submit to the Congress—

(1) a report setting forth in detail the relevant factual background and the reasons for his findings and recommendation;

(2) a statement of the conditions and stipulations which would govern the activity if approved by the Congress; and

(3) in any case in which an environmental impact statement is required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 [42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.], a statement which complies with the requirements of section 102(2)(C) of such Act [42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)]. In the case of any recommendation for which an environmental impact statement is not required under section 102(2)(C) of the National environmental Policy Act of 1969 [42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)], the President may, if he deems it desirable, include such a statement in his transmittal to the Congress.

Any recommendation under this section shall take effect only upon enactment of a joint resolution approving such recommendation within the first period of one hundred and twenty calendar days of continuous session of Congress beginning on the date after the date of receipt by the Senate and House of Representatives of such recommendation. Any recommendation of the President submitted to Congress under subsection (a) shall be considered received by both Houses for purposes of this section on the first day on which both are in session occurring after such recommendation is submitted.

For purposes of this section—

(1) continuity of session of Congress is broken only by an adjournment sine die; and

(2) the days on which either House is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain are excluded in the computation of the one-hundred-and-twenty-day calendar period.

(Pub. L. 96–487, title XV, § 1502, Dec. 2, 1980, 94 Stat. 2549.)