Assistance program
Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation (AMLR)
$5.6 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior, Department of the
- Assistance
- Formula Grants;Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 15.252
- What it does
- The Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Program protects public health, safety, and property from the effects of coal mining and restores land and water resources and the environment that have been degraded by coal mining all by undertaking emergency restoration, reclamation, abatement, control, and prevention measures on eligible lands. The Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program supports economic and community development projects and is an opportunity for States/Tribes to return areas impacted by coal mining to productive reuse. The objective of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Program is to address coal AML related problems, including coal AML emergencies, physical hazards resulting from legacy coal mining that pose a threat to public health, safety, and the environment (including acid mine drainage), and water supply that has been adversely affected by legacy coal mining.
- Who benefits
- Citizens and the general public are protected from physical hazards and benefit from the reclamation of abandoned mine lands and polluted waters by reducing exposure to safety and health risks. The AMLER Program aims to enhance the economic diversification of coal country communities and bring legacy coal sites to productive reuse.
- Who applies
- The AML and IIJA programs are restricted to States with an approved coal mining regulatory program, lands eligible for reclamation, and active coal mining operations within their borders that are paying coal reclamation fees into the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund; and to federally recognized Tribes with eligible lands, and active mining operations paying fees into the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund. The AMLER Program is restricted to Tribes with AML Programs and the six Appalachian States with the highest amount of inventoried priority coal problems as described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 403(a) of SMCRA, as amended.
- Authorized by
- Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, Public Law 95-87, as amended, 91 Stat. 445-532.
- Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260)
- The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (Public Law 117-58) which appropriated $11.293 billion for deposit into the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to fund activities described in the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 .
- Program site
- http://www.osmre.gov ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Direct payments
$394.0M
7%
Grants
$5.2B
93%
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments