The US government will stop tracking money it never paid to states and tribes

The US Interior Department is removing old references to unspent funds from its regulations. These funds were supposed to go to states and tribes for mining cleanup before 2007, but Congress never actually paid them out.

For years, federal regulations included a phantom line item for money that was never appropriated. This change cleans up the books, removing a theoretical obligation that never materialized. It means states and tribes can no longer point to these specific regulations to claim these particular unpaid funds.