[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3392 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3392

   To provide for stability of title to certain land in the State of 
                   Louisiana, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 25, 2017

   Mr. Johnson of Louisiana introduced the following bill; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide for stability of title to certain land in the State of 
                   Louisiana, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Lake Bistineau Land Title Stability 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) on December 8, 1842, the Surveyor General approved an 
        original survey of land in northern Louisiana, which included 
        the land surrounding Lake Bistineau;
            (2) under the equal footing doctrine, the State of 
        Louisiana was entitled to the land underlying the navigable 
        waters in place within the boundaries of the State as of the 
        date on which the State joined the Union;
            (3) the State of Louisiana delineated the ownership of the 
        land in the State based on the Original Survey;
            (4) in 1901, the State of Louisiana--
                    (A) transferred more than 7,000 acres of land to 
                the commissioners of the Bossier Levee District through 
                Louisiana Act Number 89 of 1892; and
                    (B) conducted a survey that followed the same path 
                around Lake Bistineau as the path included in the 
                Original Survey;
            (5) in 1904, the Bossier Levee District subsequently 
        conveyed the land described in paragraph (4)(A) to private 
        ownership;
            (6) parcels of the land described in paragraph (4)(A) were 
        bought and sold in good faith based on the stability of the 
        title to the land;
            (7) on September 16, 1967, the Bureau of Land Management 
        submitted a resurvey of the land described in paragraph (4)(A) 
        for S30-T16N-R10W and 2 adjacent islands, which presented a new 
        line to represent what the Bureau of Land Management surveyors 
        believed to be the contour of Lake Bistineau as of the date on 
        which the State of Louisiana joined the Union;
            (8) on January 15, 1969, the Bureau of Land Management 
        approved the Resurvey;
            (9) on February 27, 1969, notice of the filing of the 
        Resurvey was filed in the Federal Register (34 Fed. Reg. 2677), 
        but the Bureau of Land Management has presented no records of 
        further notice provided to the affected landowners regarding--
                    (A) the effects of the Resurvey; or
                    (B) the right of affected landowners to contest the 
                Resurvey;
            (10) on September 27, 2013, the Bureau of Land Management 
        responded to an inquiry by certain owners of land subject to 
        the Resurvey to inform the landowners that title to the land of 
        the landowners would ``appear to be still vested in the United 
        States''; and
            (11) there are estimated to be more than 200 acres of, and 
        more than 50 residential homes located on, the land subject to 
        the Resurvey.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to direct the Secretary of 
the Interior to issue a recordable disclaimer of interest of the United 
States in and to--
            (1) any land described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of 
        subsection (b) of section 4 that is located outside the record 
        meander lines described in that subsection; and
            (2) any omitted land.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Omitted land.--The term ``omitted land'' means any land 
        in S30-T16N-R10W, including adjacent islands and the meander 
        lines of the water body, that was in place during the Original 
        Survey, but that was not included in the Original Survey, 
        regardless of whether the exclusion of the land was due to 
        gross error in the Original Survey or fraud by any individual 
        conducting the Original Survey.
            (2) Original survey.--The term ``Original Survey'' means 
        the survey of land in northern Louisiana approved by the 
        Surveyor General on December 8, 1842.
            (3) Resurvey.--The term ``Resurvey'' means the document 
        entitled ``Dependent Re-Survey, Extension Survey and Survey of 
        Two Islands, Sections 17, 29, and 30'', which was completed on 
        November 24, 1967, approved on January 15, 1969, and published 
        in the Federal Register on February 27, 1969 (34 Fed. Reg. 
        2677).
            (4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.

SEC. 4. LEGAL STATUS OF RESURVEY.

    (a) In General.--The Resurvey--
            (1) shall not be considered to be, or serve as, a gross 
        error determination; and
            (2) shall have no legal force or effect on the ownership of 
        the land described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (b).
    (b) Meander Lines.--The meander lines in the Original Survey are 
definitive for purposes of determining title to--
            (1) the land in S30-T16N-R10W; and
            (2) the 2 islands adjacent to the land described in 
        paragraph (1).
    (c) Disclaimer of Interest.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary shall prepare a disclaimer 
        of interest in which the United States disclaims any right, 
        title, or interest of the United States in and to--
                    (A) any land described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of 
                subsection (b) that is located outside the recorded 
                meander lines described in that subsection; and
                    (B) any omitted land.
            (2) Filing.--The Secretary shall record the disclaimer of 
        interest prepared under paragraph (1) in the appropriate local 
        office in the State of Louisiana in which real property 
        documents are recorded.
            (3) Inclusions.--The disclaimer of interest filed under 
        paragraph (2) shall include legal descriptions of the land 
        subject to the disclaimer of interest using the lot or tract 
        numbers included in the Resurvey.
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