releases: http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-introduces-legislation-protect-landowners
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-introduces-legislation-protect-landowners | Tipton Introduces Legislation to Protect Landowners | 2014-07-14 | 2014 | 2014-07 | Republican | House | CO | Scott Tipton | T000470 | tipton.house.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON—Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) introduced two pieces of legislation to protect private landowners from federal land management agency errors, and increase transparency in federal land exchanges and acquisitions. In 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a resurvey of federal land in Mesa County, Colorado. The BLM initiates resurveys under the guise that existing boundary lines were inaccurately drawn during the initial survey, which in some instances may have occurred over fifty years ago. The resurvey resulted in the reclassification of land, originally thought to be owned by a private owner as federal land. The BLM charged that individual with trespassing and the illegal removal of sand and gravel from federal lands, which resulted in a fine of over $250,000. Unfortunately, this deeply concerning story is not unique. Other private landowners, around the nation and in Colorado face similar situations—forced to relinquish property, believed to be their own, on which they have lived and worked on for generations, and without any just compensation, due to BLM land resurveys. “Landowners, thought to be the legal owners of land not included in the original boundaries, not only unfairly suffer an infringement on their private property rights, but could also be subject to retroactive trespass penalties and fines as the result of mistakes made by the federal government. The current process is unfair and punitive to landowners who, through no fault of their own, have been victims of survey errors made by the BLM,” said Tipton. “The REAL Protection Act will give Americans needed protections to ensure that when the BLM makes an error, private land owners aren’t penalized and forced to pay the price for the agency’s mistakes.” H.R. 5075, the Resurveys Entitle Adjacent Landowners to Protection (REAL Protection) Act offers commonsense reforms to the BLM resurvey process by creating a more transparent and equitable process of conducting resurveys and advances the rights of landowners by providing safeguards against BLM actions. Tipton also introduced H.R. 5074, the Land Adjacency Notification and Disclosure (LAND) Act, which seeks to improve the transparency, oversight and notification of land exchanges involving U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands or public lands under the jurisdiction of the BLM. The federal government manages nearly 640 million acres in the United States, including 50 percent in the 11 westernmost states. Given the federal government’s ownership over vast amount of lands, agencies such as the BLM and the USFS often acquire, convey, or exchange these lands with willing private entities, individuals, or state and local governments. Unfortunately, the notification and oversight process regarding federal land conveyances has been implemented arbitrarily and often times to the detriment of uninformed adjacent land owners. “With the Federal Government controlling such a substantial amount of land, especially in the Western United States, it is vital that the process by which it purchases, sells, or transfers property is transparent and involves a simplified, consistent and fair public notification process,” said Tipton. “By increasing transparency and notification in this process, we can better ensure that the public interest is being served in federal land exchanges and that adjacent landowners receive timely and comprehensive public notification of these pending exchanges. Additionally, to ensure the accuracy of land appraisals, evaluators should be equipped with accurate and transparent information that discloses the land’s intended use by those holding purchasing contracts related to the parcel of land.” Background: H.R. 5075, the REAL Protection Act will: Protect landowners if a resurvey results in the reclassification of federal lands previously thought to be privately owned. The persons thought to be a private owner of such land shall – Be given the right of first refusal to purchase the land for fair market value minus the value of any significant improvement made to such lands; or Be reimbursed for the fair market value of any significant improvement made to such lands; and May not be charged with willful trespass onto such lands unless the person used such lands with the knowledge that the lands were, in fact, federal land. Require the BLM to notify all property owners with land abutting or adjacent to federal land being resurveyed of the pending resurvey, no later than 30 days before commencement of the resurvey. Additionally, the Secretary shall publish a notice in the Federal Register no later than 30 days after the completion of the survey. H.R. 5074, the LAND Act will: Require the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture to provide advanced written notification to each adjacent landowner to the parcel of land to be acquired. If the acquisition process involves the use of a third-party facilitator, the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as a condition of the approval of the acquisition, must require – Submission of all purchase contracts and related agreements held by the third-party facilitator related to the parcel to be acquired; and Supervisor review of all purchase contracts and related agreements, the purpose of the conveyance, and other terms and conditions of the acquisition. Require the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture to provide advanced written notification to each adjacent landowner to the parcel of land to be conveyed. If the conveyance process involves the use of a third-party facilitator, the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as a condition of the approval of the conveyance, must require – Submission of all purchase contracts and related agreements held by the third-party facilitator related to the federal land to be conveyed; Submission to appraisers of contact information for prospective end owners of the federal land to be conveyed; and Supervisor review of all purchase contracts and related agreements, the purpose of the conveyance, and other terms and conditions of the conveyance. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |