I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4979 

To provide legal certainty to property owners along the Red River in Texas, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 26, 2014 

Mr. THORNBERRY (for himself, Mr. FLORES, Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. BURGESS, 

and Mr. NEUGEBAUER) introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To provide legal certainty to property owners along the Red 

River in Texas, 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. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Red River Private 

5 Property Protection Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) In 1923, the Supreme Court found the bor9 der between Texas and Oklahoma to be: ‘‘the water10 washed and relatively permanent elevation or acclivVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:20 Jul 02, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4979.IH H4979

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1 ity at the outer line of the river bed which separates 

2 the bed from the adjacent upland, whether valley or 

3 hill, and serves to confine the waters within the bed 

4 and to preserve the course of the river, and that the 

5 boundary intended is on and along the bank at the 

6 average or mean level attained by the waters in the 

7 periods when they reach and wash the bank without 

8 overflowing it. When we speak of the bed, we include 

9 all of the area which is kept practically bare of vege10 tation by the wash of the waters of the river from 

11 year to year in their onward course, although parts 

12 of it are left dry for months at a time, and we ex13 clude the lateral valleys, which have the characteris14 tics of relatively fast land and usually are covered by 

15 upland grasses and vegetation, although temporarily 

16 overflowed in exceptional instances when the river is 

17 at flood.’’. 

18 (2) This would become known as the ‘‘gradient 

19 boundary’’. 

20 (3) This decision makes clear that, absent 

21 water that is physically touching the bank, the high 

22 bluff or ‘‘ancient bank’’ along the southern edge of 

23 the Red River is not the boundary between Texas 

24 and Oklahoma. 


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1 (4) In 2000, Public Law 106–288 ratified the 

2 Red River Boundary Compact agreed to and signed 

3 into State law by Texas and Oklahoma that sets the 

4 boundary between the States to be the vegetation 

5 line on the south bank of the Red River, except for 

6 the Texoma area where the boundary is established 

7 pursuant to procedures provided for in the Compact. 

8 (5) Therefore, the Bureau of Land Manage9 ment should have no claim to land that is either 

10 south of the ‘‘gradient boundary’’ established by the 

11 Supreme Court or south of the vegetation line on the 

12 southern bank of the Red River pursuant to Public 

13 Law 106–288 whereby landowners have proof of 

14 their right, title, and interest to the land and have 

15 been paying property taxes accordingly. 

16 SEC. 3. ISSUANCE OF QUIT CLAIM DEEDS. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall relinquish 

18 and shall transfer by quit claim deed all right, title, and 

19 interest of the United States in and to Red River lands 

20 to any claimant who demonstrates to the satisfaction of 

21 the Secretary that official county or State records indicate 

22 that the claimant holds all right, title, and interest to 

23 those lands. 

24 (b) PUBLIC NOTIFICATION.—The Secretary shall 

25 publish in the Federal Register and on official and approVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:20 Jul 02, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4979.IH H4979

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1 priate Web sites the process to receive written and/or elec2 tronic submissions of the documents required under sub3 section (a). The Secretary shall treat all proper notifica4 tions received from the claimant as fulfilling the satisfac5 tion requirements under subsection (a). 

6 (c) STANDARD OF APPROVAL.—The Secretary shall 

7 accept all official county and State records as filed in the 

8 county on the date of submission proving right, title, and 

9 interest. 

10 (d) TIME PERIOD FOR APPROVAL OR DISAPPROVAL

11 OF REQUEST.—The Secretary shall approve or disapprove 

12 a request for a quit claim deed under subsection (a) not 

13 later than 120 days after the date on which the written 

14 request is received by the Secretary. If the Secretary fails 

15 to approve or disapprove such a request by the end of such 

16 120-day period, the request shall be deemed to be ap17 proved. 

18 SEC. 4. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN. 

19 The Secretary shall ensure that no parcels of Red 

20 River lands are treated as Federal land for the purpose 

21 of any resource management plan until the Secretary has 

22 ensured that such parcels are not subject to transfer under 

23 section 3. 

24 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

25 For the purposes of this Act— 


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1 (1) the term ‘‘Red River lands’’ means lands 

2 along the approximately 539-mile stretch of the Red 

3 River between the States of Texas and Oklahoma; 

4 and 

5 (2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 

6 of the Interior, acting through the Director of Bu7 reau of Land Management. 

Æ 


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