Lake Bistineau Land Title Stability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I do want to take a moment to thank Chairman Bishop and his team for their continued support of the Lake Bistineau Land Title Stability Act. This bill rights a decades-old wrong when the Federal Government failed to notify landowners of a resurvey of over 200 acres around Lake Bistineau, located in northwest Louisiana. When the Federal Government did that, it preempted the rights of landowners who had legal ownership of the land.

It is unfathomable for many of us here today to imagine a morning where we wake up and we are told that the land our families owned for generations is no longer ours, to learn that the Federal Government has somehow staked claim to our very homes, the place where we were raised, the place where we are now raising our own families, and the land we had worked for decades, all of it just gone without so much as an opportunity to contest it.

That is what happened here. The government's failure to properly notify landowners of the new boundaries and its claim to the land for nearly 50 years is shameful. This error led to unnecessary uncertainty regarding who rightfully owns the land. We genuinely believe the answer is very clear: the property rightfully belongs to the Louisianans who have owned the lands since the days the State of Louisiana first entered the Union.

My bill provides certainty and clarity by directing the Secretary of the Interior to issue a disclaimer of interest on the disputed acres and rightfully restore land title ownership to the families that have lived and worked these lands since the State's admittance to the Union.

I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will support this bill and support the folks in my district who have simply had their land taken from them without due process.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.

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