I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6247 
To provide for stability of title to certain lands in the State of Louisiana, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 
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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds as follows: 
(1) On December 8, 1842, the Surveyor Gen-
eral of the United States Government approved an 
original survey of lands in Northern Louisiana, 
which 
included 
the 
lands 
surrounding 
Lake 
Bistineau. 
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(2) Under the Equal Footing Doctrine, the 
State of Louisiana was entitled to the lands under-
lying the navigable waters in place at statehood 
within its limits. 
(3) The State of Louisiana delineated its own-
ership based on the United States Government’s 
Original Survey of 1842. 
(4) In 1901, the State of Louisiana transferred 
over 7,000 acres of land to the Commissioners of the 
Bossier Levee District through Louisiana Act Num-
ber 89 of 1892. 
(5) The State of Louisiana conducted a survey 
in 1901 that followed the same path around Lake 
Bistineau as the Original Survey of 1842. 
(6) The Bossier Levee District subsequently 
conveyed the subject lands to private ownership in 
1904. Lands within the subject lands continued to 
be bought and sold in good faith based on the sta-
bility of this title. 
(7) On September 16, 1967, the Bureau of 
Land Management submitted a re-survey of the sub-
ject lands for S30–T16N–R10W and two adjacent 
islands. The re-survey presented a new line to rep-
resent what the Bureau of Land Management sur-
veyors believed was the contour of Lake Bistineau 
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155 years earlier, when Louisiana joined the Union. 
The Bureau of Land Management approved the re- 
survey on January 15, 1969. That re-survey was 
filed in the Federal Register (34 Fed. Reg. 2677), 
but the Bureau of Land Management has presented 
no records of further notifying all of the affected 
landowners of the re-survey’s effects or that the re- 
survey could be contested. 
(8) On September 27, 2013, the Bureau of 
Land Management responded to an inquiry by cer-
tain affected landowners to inform them that title to 
their property would ‘‘appear to be still vested in the 
United States’’. 
(9) There are estimated to be more than 200 
acres and more than 50 residential homes on the re-
cently disputed lands. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to direct 
the Secretary of the Interior to issue a recordable dis-
claimer of interest by the United States to any omitted 
lands or lands lying outside the record meander lines de-
scribed in section 3(b). 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) RECORDABLE DISCLAIMER OF INTEREST.— 
The term ‘‘recordable disclaimer of interest’’ means 
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a document recorded in the Parish clerk’s office or 
other such local office where real property docu-
ments are recorded, in which the United States dis-
claims any right, title, or interest to those lands 
found lying outside the recorded meander lines of 
the subject lands referred to in section 3(b), includ-
ing omitted lands, if any. 
(2) OMITTED
LANDS.—The term ‘‘omitted 
lands’’ means any lands that were in place on the 
date of the Original Survey referred to in section 
3(b) but were not included in the Original Survey of 
S30–T16N–R10W including adjacent islands and 
the meander lines of the water body, even if due to 
gross error or fraud in the Original Survey or by the 
original surveyor. 
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of the Interior. 
SEC. 3. LEGAL STATUS OF RE-SURVEY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The document titled ‘‘Dependent 
Re-Survey, Extension Survey and Survey of Two Islands, 
Sections 17, 29, and 30’’ (completed on November 24, 
1967; approved on January 15, 1969; and filed in the 
Federal Register (34 Fed. Reg. 2677)) shall not be consid-
ered or serve as a gross error determination and otherwise 
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shall have no legal force or effect on the ownership of the 
subject lands. 
(b) OMITTED LANDS.—The meander lines in the 
Original Survey of December 8, 1842, for S30–T16N– 
R10W and two adjacent islands are definitive for purposes 
of determining title. 
(c) DISCLAIMER OF INTEREST.—The Secretary shall 
prepare a recordable disclaimer of interest of the omitted 
lands, if any, including land descriptions using the lot or 
tract numbers as shown on the Dependent Re-Survey and 
lands lying outside the record meander lines. 
Æ 
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