I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3342 

To provide for stability of title to certain lands in the State of Louisiana, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 29, 2015 

Mr. FLEMING introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To provide for stability of title to certain lands in the State 

of Louisiana, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds as follows: 

5 (1) On December 8, 1842, the Surveyor Gen6 eral of the United States Government approved an 

7 original survey of lands in Northern Louisiana, 

8 which included the lands surrounding Lake 

9 Bistineau. 


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1 (2) Under the Equal Footing Doctrine, the 

2 State of Louisiana was entitled to the lands under3 lying the navigable waters in place at statehood 

4 within its limits. 

5 (3) The State of Louisiana delineated its own6 ership based on the United States Government’s 

7 Original Survey of 1842. 

8 (4) In 1901, the State of Louisiana transferred 

9 over 7,000 acres of land to the Commissioners of the 

10 Bossier Levee District through Louisiana Act Num11 ber 89 of 1892. 

12 (5) The State of Louisiana conducted a survey 

13 in 1901 that followed the same path around Lake 

14 Bistineau as the Original Survey of 1842. 

15 (6) The Bossier Levee District subsequently 

16 conveyed the subject lands to private ownership in 

17 1904. Lands within the subject lands continued to 

18 be bought and sold in good faith based on the sta19 bility of this title. 

20 (7) On September 16, 1967, the Bureau of 

21 Land Management submitted a re-survey of the sub22 ject lands for S30–T16N–R10W and two adjacent 

23 islands. The re-survey presented a new line to rep24 resent what the Bureau of Land Management sur25 veyors believed was the contour of Lake Bistineau 


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1 155 years earlier, when Louisiana joined the Union. 

2 The Bureau of Land Management approved the re3 survey on January 15, 1969. That re-survey was 

4 filed in the Federal Register (34 Fed. Reg. 2677), 

5 but the Bureau of Land Management has presented 

6 no records of further notifying all of the affected 

7 landowners of the re-survey’s effects or that the re8 survey could be contested. 

9 (8) On September 27, 2013, the Bureau of 

10 Land Management responded to an inquiry by cer11 tain affected landowners to inform them that title to 

12 their property would ‘‘appear to be still vested in the 

13 United States’’. 

14 (9) There are estimated to be more than 200 

15 acres and more than 50 residential homes on the re16 cently disputed lands. 

17 SEC. 2. LEGAL STATUS OF RE-SURVEY. 

18 The document titled ‘‘Dependent Re-Survey, Exten19 sion Survey and Survey of Two Islands, Sections 17, 29, 

20 and 30’’ (completed on November 24, 1967; approved on 

21 January 15, 1969; and filed in the Federal Register (34 

22 Fed. Reg. 2677)) shall be void and have no legal force 

23 or effect. No future survey or re-survey of the lands that 

24 were the subject of that document undertaken by the FedVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:59 Aug 05, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3342.IH H3342

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1 eral Government shall have any legal effect as to the title 

2 and boundaries of those subject lands. 

Æ 


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