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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Red River Private 
Property Protection Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
(1) In 1923, the Supreme Court found the bor-
der between Texas and Oklahoma to be: ‘‘the water- 
washed and relatively permanent elevation or accliv-
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ity 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 vege-
tation 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 ex-
clude the lateral valleys, which have the characteris-
tics 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’’ along the southern edge of 
the Red River is not the boundary between Texas 
and Oklahoma. 
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(4) In 2000, Public Law 106–288 ratified the 
Red River Boundary Compact agreed to and signed 
into State law by Texas and Oklahoma that sets the 
boundary between the States to be the vegetation 
line on the south bank of the Red River, except for 
the Texoma area where the boundary is established 
pursuant to procedures provided for in the Compact. 
(5) Therefore, the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment should have no claim to land that is either 
south of the ‘‘gradient boundary’’ established by the 
Supreme Court or south of the vegetation line on the 
southern bank of the Red River pursuant to Public 
Law 106–288 whereby landowners have proof of 
their right, title, and interest to the land and have 
been paying property taxes accordingly. 
SEC. 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 appro-
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priate Web sites the process to receive written and/or elec-
tronic submissions of the documents required under sub-
section (a). The Secretary shall treat all proper notifica-
tions received from the claimant as fulfilling the satisfac-
tion 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 ap-
proved. 
SEC. 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. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
For the purposes of this Act— 
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(1) the term ‘‘Red River lands’’ means lands 
along the approximately 539-mile stretch of the Red 
River between the States of Texas and Oklahoma; 
and 
(2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of the Interior, acting through the Director of Bu-
reau of Land Management. 
Æ 
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