Fleming Fights Government Land Grab

Press Release

Congressman John Fleming, M.D. released the following statement after the House Natural Resources subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing on H.R. 3342, to provide for the stability of title to certain lands in Louisiana.

Based on the Original Survey for Northern Louisiana from 1842, 230 acres of land along Lake Bistineau were claimed by the State of Louisiana. These lands were transferred to the Bossier Levee district in 1901, and then to private ownership. In 1967, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a re-survey in which they estimated the level of Lake Bistineau 155 years earlier, when Louisiana joined the Union. BLM's conclusion was that the Original Survey had drawn the wrong boundary of the lake for its level in 1812 and therefore federal government owned those 230 acres, which contain over 100 homes. However, they did not notify the affected landowners until September 2013, when some of the landowners attempted to lease their mineral rights.

"In this hearing, the BLM made it clear that they felt entitled to privately owned land and mineral rights because of a purported error in their own surveys. The State of Louisiana and the owners of the land have acted in good faith. They should not be forced to buy their land again when the federal government does not own it, and never notified them.

"What is particularly galling is that this Administration routinely runs roughshod over the law or makes new laws--granting Obamacare exemptions, creating executive amnesty, and negotiating treaties with Iran. But when it comes to something so basic and straightforward like land ownership -- the Administration refuses to act and is opposed the simplest of fixes from Congress."

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