WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Believe it or not, the long stalled Resolution Copper Land Exchange Bill (Senate Bill 409) started moving in the U.S. Senate on Monday, after passage of the new $1.1 trillion federal government budget bill on Sunday.

And for the first time since 2005, the land exchange of nearly 3,000 acres of Tonto Forest Land at Oak Flat needed to pave the way for a new $4 billion underground copper mine could finally come up before the entire U.S. Senate for a full vote.

SB 409, the latest version of the land exchange, was introduced early this year in the U.S. Senate by Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, but it has gone nowhere since a subcommittee hearing was held in Washington, D.C. in June.

On Dec.1, Senator McCain asked Senator Jeff Bingaman, (D-N.M.), Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, once again to schedule a vote on the land exchange bill before the year’s end. Noting unemployment rates in Arizona were approaching record highs ( 11 to 15 percent in the Copper Corridor), McCain told Bingaman that Arizona cannot afford to wait any longer for Congress to act on this legislation and the 1,400 jobs that would be created at a new underground mine east of Superior were badly needed.

McCain’s latest request appears to have been effective. The Arizona Silver Belt has learned the McCain and Kyl forces working with Senator Bingaman met and agreed on some adjustments to Senate Bill 409 and to move it forward for committee approval.

Then the official announcement came on Monday. The revised Kyl/McCain bill is now scheduled to go before the full Senate Committee of Energy and Natural Resources today at 9:30 a.m. local time in the Energy hearing room back in Washington. This is called a “mark up” where all committee members go over the bill as it is now written and if the majority agrees, the next step would be SB 409 eventually going to the full U.S. Senate for a vote,.

However, today’s hearing before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to be lengthy. The Resolution Copper Land Swap Measure is among some 32 scheduled bills pending in Senate that will be going through “mark up” at this full committee hearing.