Red River Private Property Protection Act

Bill: 113-hr-4979
Sponsor: Rep. Thornberry, Mac [R-TX-13]
Introduced: 2014-06-26 in the House
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources
Subjects: Lakes and rivers
Land transfers
Oklahoma
Texas

Summary:
action_date: 2014-06-26
text: 
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. 

action_date: 2014-12-22
text: 
Red River Private Property Protection Act - (Sec. 2) States that the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), disclaims interest to certain lands along a stretch of the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma located south of the South Bank as specified in the Supreme Court decree rendered March 12, 1923, in 
Oklahoma v. Texas
. 
 
(Sec. 3) Directs the BLM to relinquish, disclaim, and transfer, by special warranty deed, all interest of the United States in and to a specified stretch of Red River lands to any claimant who demonstrates: (1) an interest under a chain of title for at least 30 years from the time of submission, (2) a deed recorded in the appropriate county, and (3) payment of all taxes assessed on the land and any interest and penalties associated with any period of tax delinquency. 
 
Requires publication in the Federal Register and on official and appropriate websites of a process for receiving submissions of such documents. 
 
Sets forth standards for the BLM to approve or disapprove special warranty deed requests.
 
(Sec. 4) Requires administrative hearing procedures to be established for appeals of BLM decisions or adjudications of disputes between property owners with overlapping claims. Allows property owners who dispute final administrative decisions to pursue claims in a Texas federal court. 
 
(Sec. 5) Instructs the 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 BLM has ensured that such parcels are not subject to transfer by this Act. 
 
(Sec. 6) Prohibits this Act from altering: (1) interests of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Tribes; (2) tribal trust lands; (3) allotted lands that may be held in trust or lands subject to a federal restriction against alienation; (4) boundaries of certain tribe-owned lands pursuant to the gradient boundary survey method established in the Supreme Court decree; and (5) the sovereign rights, jurisdiction, or governmental interests of those tribes.
 
(Sec. 7) Directs the BLM, after ensuring that Red River lands parcels are not subject to transfer to a claimant, to offer remaining identified federal lands for disposal by competitive sale for at least fair market value. Requires sales to be subject to existing tribal, state, and local rights. 
 
Requires the BLM, within five years after enactment of this Act, to submit to Congress a list of identified federal lands that have not been sold and the reasons those lands were not sold.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2014-12-22
text: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 531.
action_date: 2014-12-22
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 113-700.
action_date: 2014-12-22
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 113-700.
action_date: 2014-11-19
text: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
action_date: 2014-11-19
text: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
action_date: 2014-11-19
text: Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Discharged.
action_date: 2014-07-29
text: Subcommittee Hearings Held.
action_date: 2014-07-02
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation.
action_date: 2014-06-26
text: Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
action_date: 2014-06-26
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2014-06-26
text: Introduced in House