PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 531.
Congressional Research Service
Version 17 · Reported to House with amendment(s) · Dec 22, 2014
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.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
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.
People & committees
Rep. Thornberry, Mac [R-TX-13] · R–TX
Legislative record
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Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 531.
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 113-700.
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 113-700.
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Discharged.
Subcommittee Hearings Held.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation.
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Nov 30, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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