Red River Private Property Protection Act

To provide legal certainty to property owners along the Red River in Texas, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Red River Private Property Protection Act 2. Findings Congress finds as follows: (1) In 1923, the Supreme Court found the border between Texas and Oklahoma to be: the water-washed and relatively permanent elevation or acclivity at the outer line of the river bed which separates the bed from the adjacent upland, whether valley or hill, and serves to confine the waters within the bed and to preserve the course of the river, and that the boundary intended is on and along the bank at the average or mean level attained by the waters in the periods when they reach and wash the bank without overflowing it. When we speak of the bed, we include all of the area which is kept practically bare of vegetation by the wash of the waters of the river from year to year in their onward course, although parts of it are left dry for months at a time, and we exclude the lateral valleys, which have the characteristics of relatively fast land and usually are covered by upland grasses and vegetation, although temporarily overflowed in exceptional instances when the river is at flood. (2) This would become known as the gradient boundary (3) This decision makes clear that, absent water that is physically touching the bank, the high bluff or ancient bank (4) In 2000, Public Law 106–288 (5) Therefore, the Bureau of Land Management should have no claim to land that is either south of the gradient boundary Public Law 106–288 3. Issuance of quit claim deeds (a) In General The Secretary shall relinquish and shall transfer by quit claim deed all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to Red River lands to any claimant who demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary that official county or State records indicate that the claimant holds all right, title, and interest to those lands. (b) Public Notification The Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register and on official and appropriate Web sites the process to receive written and/or electronic submissions of the documents required under subsection (a). The Secretary shall treat all proper notifications received from the claimant as fulfilling the satisfaction requirements under subsection (a). (c) Standard of Approval The Secretary shall accept all official county and State records as filed in the county on the date of submission proving right, title, and interest. (d) Time Period for Approval or Disapproval of Request The Secretary shall approve or disapprove a request for a quit claim deed under subsection (a) not later than 120 days after the date on which the written request is received by the Secretary. If the Secretary fails to approve or disapprove such a request by the end of such 120-day period, the request shall be deemed to be approved. 4. Resource Management Plan The Secretary shall ensure that no parcels of Red River lands are treated as Federal land for the purpose of any resource management plan until the Secretary has ensured that such parcels are not subject to transfer under section 3. 5. Definitions For the purposes of this Act— (1) the term Red River lands (2) the term Secretary

Summary: Red River Private Property Protection Act - Directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to relinquish and transfer, by quitclaim deed, all interest of the United States in and to the lands along the approximately 539-mile stretch of the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma to any claimant who demonstrates that official county or state records indicate that such claimant holds all interest to those lands. Requires publication in the Federal Register and on official and appropriate websites of a process for receiving submissions of such documents. Instructs BLM to ensure that no parcels of Red River lands are treated as federal land for the purpose of any resource management plan until the Secretary of the Interior has ensured that such parcels are not subject to transfer by this Act.