Ed. note: This is a breaking news story and more details will be reported as soon as they’re available. Updates with quotes from Sen. Boxer, Cemex and Santa Clarita.

The House passed a Cemex bill Thursday authored by Congressman Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, he told KHTS AM-1220.

McKeon contacted KHTS AM-1220 on Thursday and confirmed the bill’s passage. “It’s passed, and now it’s up to the Senate,” McKeon said Thursday morning.

Santa Clarita Valley officials expressed frustration last  Thursday at Congressman Howard Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, for his failure to include a Cemex bill in the National Defense Authorization Act.

The move came as a surprise to many who assumed hope for the bill this congressional session was lost after the bill was not included in a legislative package tacked on to the National Defense Authorization Act.

“It has passed in the House, it ‘s a done deal for us,” said Morris Thomas, a spokesman for McKeon, regarding H.R. 5742.

The bill still must get approved in the Senate, he added.

“Cemex fully supports this legislation and is optimistic of its passage in the Senate,” said Sara Engdahl, director of communications for the mining company. “We will continue to keep the lines of communication open with the city of Santa Clarita as we move closer to a resolution.”

The congressman took grief in the last week from city officials, however, his office had been working on the plan to get the bill to a vote for a while, he said.

Related: McKeon Did Not Submit Bill For Cemex

“(H.R. 5742) was never an appropriate bill for the NDAA and the omnibus,” Thomas said. “We’ve been working on an alternative for some time, but any prior disclosure of this particular option would have jeopardized it.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced the current Cemex bill last month in the Senate, after learning it achieved a zero score from the Congressional Budget Office.

“The momentum has shifted in our favor, but we’re not there yet,” Boxer said, regarding her efforts on the bill.

The bill now needs unanimous support from the Senate in order to pass, according to sources.

The zero score means it would have no cost for taxpayers, and thus be immune from a House ban on earmarks.

City Councilwoman Laurene Weste praised the our congressional representatives Thursday in a statement:

“We are thrilled that our Congressman of 22 years, through his skill and years of experience, found a way to conclude this monumentally important piece of legislation in his district as a capstone to his career. This is a tremendous victory for our community, protecting us from large-scale mining and is as important to the protection of the Santa Clara River and the President of the United States newly declared San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.  Now. we look forward to working with U.S Senators Boxer and Feinstein who have been stalwart in their dedication and commitment in resolving this issue.

“We’re very proud of our partnership to bring this to conclusion,” Weste added, “and to reach an amicable resolution for this situation. We’re very proud of the effort.”

The congressman used the suspension calendar, and introduced it as a separate stand-alone, he said, followed by a voice vote that was unanimous, Thomas added.

The city of Santa Clarita and Cemex, an international mining company, have been working cooperatively for more than a decade to compensate Cemex for its Soledad Canyon mining contracts while avoiding a large-scale, multi-decade mining operation near the city’s eastern border.

City officials estimate they’ve spent more than $12 million lobbying for the bill.

The bill calls for the cancellation of two mining contracts that Cemex, a Mexico-based, international building materials company, owns on land just east of the city of Santa Clarita.

In exchange, the Bureau of Land Management would be called upon to sell about 10,000 acres in San Bernardino County, the value of which would be used to compensate Cemex for the value of their land.

Legislation to keep a massive gravel mining project out of the Santa Clarita Valley was in danger of not making to the House floor for a vote, city officials said last Wednesday.

Here’s a statement from McKeon:

“Today, I am honored to announce the passage of my bill, H.R. 5742, the Soledad Canyon Settlement Act.

This tremendous achievement is the result of more than two decades of tireless work to develop a practicable solution that would take the Soledad Canyon Mine out of commission and lift this burden off of the backs of my constituents.

Over the years I have engaged with civic leaders, residents of my district, environmental leaders, the County of Los Angeles, CEMEX, BLM, and the Department of Interior. In repeated efforts to bring all parties together to craft a deal that would be mutually beneficial, I have introduced eight bills on this issue, each of which took a different approach in dealing with the mine.

The tug and pull of all parties has influenced the legislative process, with each contributing ideas to further perfect a bill that would finally solve this vexing issue that affects the residents of my district.

In the 113^th Congress, I have redoubled my efforts to identify an avenue through which I could finally bring this bill to fruition. The NDAA has never been the proper legislative vehicle to attach the Soledad Canyon Mine legislation to, and neither was today’s Omnibus spending bill.

This day has been a long time coming, and I could not be more grateful to everyone who has devoted their time and energy to get the Soledad Canyon Settlement Act over the finish line. I would like to extend a special thank you to Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Chairman Doc Hastings for their steadfast support of my bill. They have been invaluable allies in this fight.

I would also like to thank Congressman Brad Sherman and Senator Barbara Boxer for reaching across the aisle to achieve such a resounding and bipartisan victory.

I am looking forward to Senator Boxer leading the charge for swift Senate consideration and passage.”

From a previous story:

In what has been described as the biggest public lands package since 2009, as many as 70 public lands and energy bills were attached this week to the National Defense Authorization Act.

But the latest so-called Cemex bill by U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, who as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is responsible for pushing through the defense authorization, is not among them.

Both the city and Cemex support the proposed legislation and a companion bill in the Senate by Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

The legislation calls for Cemex to be compensated for the value of its Soledad Canyon mining contracts with land in Victorville – all at no cost to the government or its taxpayers, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Santa Clarita City Councilman Bob Kellar said Wednesday that McKeon told him his bill was authored too late to be tacked onto the defense authorization with the other land bills. McKeon introduced his Cemex bill Nov. 19.

When Kellar discussed the possibility with McKeon last Wednesday night, he said McKeon told him the bill would have to have been scored months ago to be a part of the package.

Kellar said McKeon told him Congressman-elect Steve Knight, who takes over McKeon’s seat in January, is the bill’s best shot.

But city officials have said Cemex considers the McKeon bill and its counterpart in the Senate to be the last chance to stop mining project from going forward.

“If we cannot bring closure to the issue during this session, Cemex has indicated that they will have no choice but to go forward and obtain the final permits leading to mining of the site,” Kellar told a House committee earlier this year.

Kellar said the passage of McKeon’s newest bill as stand-alone legislation is highly unlikely. City officials have expressed hope in recent weeks that it would be included in an omnibus bill.