Sponsor
Julie Fedorchak
Representative · R-ND
The bill streamlines and clarifies State–Federal land exchanges and strengthens tribal trust and conservation protections in North Dakota—providing title clarity and continuity for leases and grazing—while accelerating conveyances and reducing some procedural protections, which raises environmental, administrative, and fiscal risks for communities, agencies, and certain landholders.
Tribal communities: tribes can request relinquished reservation land be taken into trust and the bill preserves treaty and trust rights, strengthening tribal land bases and sovereignty.
Conservation and public health: the bill excludes environmentally sensitive/reserved areas from 'unappropriated Federal land', withdraws selected Federal lands during exchanges, and requires hazardous-material inspections before conveyance, reducing risks of development on protected lands and of obvious contamination.
Ranchers, permittees and lessees: existing leases, grazing permits, rights‑of‑way and permits transfer to successors and grazing access and compensation for range improvements are preserved, providing economic stability and continuity for agricultural users.
Environmental and public‑health risk: environmental review is discretionary for some relinquished parcels, so transfers could occur without full federal environmental analysis, raising the risk of undisclosed contamination for recipients and neighboring communities.
Reduced procedural safeguards and public notice: removing standard FLPMA sale/exchange requirements for these conveyances can lessen public input, transparency, and procedural protections on land disposals.
Rushed reviews and agency strain: short statutory deadlines (e.g., 180‑day approvals, 60‑day initiation) combined with added delineation and exclusion requirements risk overburdening State and Federal agencies and causing rushed or lower‑quality reviews.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Allows North Dakota to swap specified state trust lands inside reservations for BLM public lands of substantially equal value under appraisal, tribal consultation, and environmental safeguards.
Representative · R-ND
Allows North Dakota to relinquish certain state trust land parcels that lie wholly or partly inside Indian reservations in exchange for federal public (BLM) lands of substantially equal value, subject to appraisal, tribal consultation, and environmental and hazardous-material review. The law sets appraisal rules and limits for value equalization, preserves existing leases and grazing rights during transfers, permits the Secretary of the Interior to take relinquished reservation land into trust for tribes on request, and preserves any pending litigation over land or mineral ownership.
Introduced March 21, 2025 by Julie Fedorchak · Last progress May 20, 2026