I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 718
To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture
from transferring certain Federal land, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. Z
INKE(for himself and Mr. VASQUEZ) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to
the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary
of Agriculture from transferring certain Federal land,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Lands in Public 4
Hands Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act, the term ‘‘publicly accessible tract’’ 7
means a tract of Federal land managed by the Secretary 8
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of the Interior or the Chief of the Forest Service that can 1
be accessed by public road, public trail, public waterway, 2
public easement, or public right-of-way. 3
SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON TRANSFER OF CERTAIN FEDERAL 4
LAND. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of the Interior and 6
the Secretary of Agriculture are prohibited from transfer-7
ring title to Federal land to a non-Federal entity, if the 8
Federal land is— 9
(1) a publicly accessible tract; or 10
(2) contiguous with— 11
(A) a publicly accessible tract; or 12
(B) a tract of land that— 13
(i) is owned by a State, county, or 14
municipal government; and 15
(ii) can be accessed by public road, 16
public trail, public waterway, public ease-17
ment, or public right-of-way. 18
(b) E
XCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to 19
a transfer— 20
(1) of Federal land that is— 21
(A)(i) less than 300 acres; or 22
(ii) less than 5 acres and accessible 23
via a public waterway; and 24
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(B) authorized to be transferred under and 1
subject to the Federal Land Policy and Man-2
agement Act of 1976; 3
(2) authorized by— 4
(A) the Southern Nevada Public Land 5
Management Act of 1998; 6
(B) the Sisk Act (16 U.S.C. 479a); 7
(C) Public Law 85–569, commonly known 8
as the ‘‘Townsites Act of 1958’’; 9
(D) the Small Tract Act of 1983; 10
(E) the Act of May 17, 1906, commonly 11
known as the ‘‘Native Allotment Act of 1906’’; 12
(F) Public Law 85–508, commonly known 13
as the ‘‘Alaska Statehood Act of 1959’’; 14
(G) the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 15
Act; 16
(H) the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Vet-17
erans Land Allotment Program authorized by 18
section 1119 of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Con-19
servation, Management, and Recreation Act; 20
(I) the Recreation and Public Purposes 21
Act; or 22
(J) the Weeks Act of 1911; 23
(3) explicitly authorized by Federal law; or 24
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(4) completed through a land exchange author-1
ized by Federal law. 2
(c) L
IMITATION.—The Secretary shall not subdivide 3
Federal land to meet acreage minimums described in sub-4
section (b)(1). 5
SEC. 4. STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION. 6
Nothing in this Act shall be used to influence or in-7
terpret the legality of stepping over a property corner from 8
one parcel of public land to another. 9
Æ
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