The makeup of the proposed congressional commission was a slap at the White House, which has appointed a separate seven-person commission that has been widely criticized for lacking expertise in oil and gas drilling.

The commission measure - sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La. - was added by the House Natural Resources Committee to a broader bill that would dramatically overhaul the way the government regulates drilling on federal lands and waters.

The legislation - the Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act - aims to respond to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster by creating stricter safety and fee requirements for companies seeking drilling permits.

The bill would:

Require companies to pay cash royalties for oil and gas and abolish the royalty-in-kind program for oil revenues, a measure already taken by Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar.

Bar the Interior Department from granting safety exemptions.

Bar companies from taking advantage of a program that canceled royalty payments for oil and gas produced in some deep-water wells. If they want to bid on new leases, they have to renegotiate their original lease and start paying royalties on those.

Impose fees on existing leases to support environmental conservation programs.

Make drilling companies with a record of safety violations ineligible for new drilling permits. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., sponsor of that proposal, cited BP, which he said "had an egregious safety record - a fatal safety record."

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., the bill's sponsor and the panel chairman, said: "The event which took place April 20 does not change the need for these reforms; in fact, it makes the need even more pressing."

House leaders are expected to wrap this bill into a larger energy package that will likely be introduced later this month. A separate House panel is expected to vote on a bill today that would require drilling operators to demonstrate the ability to clean up a spill should emergency equipment, such as the blowout preventer, fail.

Rahall's bill dovetails with Salazar's plan to carve up the federal regulatory agency previously known as the Minerals Management Service , which is tasked with overseeing drilling on public lands.

On Wednesday, the administration's plan to overhaul the agency moved a step forward, as Salazar began reviewing a detailed plan to divide the service into three separate bureaus.

The goal of the overhaul - which Salazar said could begin Oct. 1 - is to separate the agency's sometimes-competing missions of collecting drilling revenues, policing the industry and leasing federal property for oil and gas production. Under the administration's revamp plan, those roles would be spread across three separate bureaus. A separate investigations and review unit would be charged with looking into allegations of misconduct.

chelsea.hackney@chron.com