[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5818 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5818

 To relinquish all Federal interests in certain lands in the State of 
 Louisiana to correct errors resulting from possible omission of lands 
             from previous surveys, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 9, 2014

 Mr. Fleming introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To relinquish all Federal interests in certain lands in the State of 
 Louisiana to correct errors resulting from possible omission of lands 
             from previous surveys, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) On December 8, 1842, the Surveyor General of the United 
        States Government approved an original survey of lands in 
        Northern Louisiana, which included the lands surrounding Lake 
        Bistineau (subject lands).
            (2) Under the Equal Footing Doctrine, the State of 
        Louisiana was entitled to the lands underlying the navigable 
        waters in place at statehood within its limits.
            (3) In 1901, the State of Louisiana transferred over 7,000 
        acres of land to the Commissioners of the Bossier Levee 
        District through Louisiana Act Number 89 of 1892.
            (4) The State of Louisiana conducted a survey in 1901 that 
        followed the same path around Lake Bistineau as the Original 
        Survey of 1842.
            (5) 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 stability of this title.
            (6) On September 16, 1967, the Bureau of Land Management 
        (BLM) submitted a re-survey of the subject lands for Section 
        30-T16N-R10W and two adjacent islands. The re-survey presented 
        a new line to represent what the BLM surveyors believed was the 
        contour of Lake Bistineau 155 years earlier, when Louisiana 
        joined the Union. The BLM approved the re-survey on January 15, 
        1969. That re-survey was filed in the Federal Register, but the 
        BLM has presented no records of notifying all of the affected 
        landowners of the re-survey's effects or that the re-survey 
        could be contested.
            (7) On September 27, 2013, the BLM notified certain 
        affected landowners that title to their property would ``appear 
        to be still vested in the United States''.
            (8) There are estimated to be over 200 acres and over 50 
        residential homes on the recently disputed lands.

SEC. 2. RELINQUISHMENT OF FEDERAL INTERESTS IN LANDS.

    As soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of the Interior shall execute documents required to 
relinquish all Federal interests in the Property.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The effective date of the relinquishment pursuant to section 2 
shall be December 8, 1842.

SEC. 4. PROPERTY DEFINED.

    For the purposes of this Act, the term ``Property'' means the lands 
shown on that certain Dependent Re-Survey, Extension Survey and Survey 
of Two Islands , Sections 17, 29, and 30. Said survey being completed 
on November 24, 1967 and approved on January 15, 1969, consisting of 
the lands lying between the ``original record meander courses of Lake 
Bistineau'' and the re-survey's representation of a 148.60 ft contour 
line for Lake Bistineau, being shown as Lots 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 
13. All lands located within Township 16 North, Range 10 West, Bossier 
Parish, Louisiana.
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