HJR24 Summary

• Requests Congress to annually indemnify each of Alabama's 67 counties for lost sixteenth section lands using offshore Gulf of Mexico royalty revenues.

• Sixteenth section lands were designated for school purposes when Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1819; Congress set aside 100,000 additional indemnity acres in 1841 to compensate for valueless lands.

• Proposes indemnification methodology allocating approximately 13,881 acres per county with a calculated value of $1,009 per acre based on one-sixteenth of 2008 fiscal year offshore royalty revenues ($906,312,428).

• Specifies indemnification amounts for each county ranging from $7,663,355 (Walker) to $14,005,929 (multiple counties), with funds required to increase rather than replace existing education funding.

• Designates the Attorney General to oversee collection and distribution of indemnification funds and directs Alabama's Congressional Delegation to actively pursue the annual indemnification through legislation and administrative action.