Sponsors (19)
The bill secures and clarifies public access to Federal lands and prevents piecemeal privatization, but it does so by restricting certain conveyances and adding administrative and legal hurdles that can slow transfers, limit local development options, and leave users who rely on informal access routes unevenly protected.
Rural communities, recreationists, hunters, anglers, and local governments retain and can rely on public access because the bill blocks transfers or subdivisions that would privatize publicly accessible Federal tracts and protects lands bordering access routes.
State and local governments face more predictable federal landholdings because the bill bans subdivision schemes intended to evade acreage minimums, reducing the risk of piecemeal disposals.
Public land users gain clearer rules about which Federal tracts are considered publicly accessible, reducing confusion about where the law applies and making it easier to know which lands remain open.
Federal land managers and agencies (Interior, Forest Service) will face greater administrative burden and slower conveyances because they must determine public-access status and contiguity before any transfer, narrowing or complicating some authorized disposals.
Local governments, small businesses, homeowners, and potential developers may lose opportunities and revenue because the bill limits the federal ability to sell or convey public land and can deter private investment or exchanges near public lands.
Infrastructure, housing, and community projects that rely on conveyance or exchange of adjacent federal parcels could be complicated or delayed, making it harder to site or expand local projects.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Stops Interior and Forest Service from conveying fee title of publicly accessible or contiguous Federal lands to non‑Federal entities, while preserving specified statutory exceptions.
Official title: To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture from transferring certain Federal land, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 23, 2025 by Ryan Zinke · Last progress January 23, 2025
Prohibits the Department of the Interior and Forest Service from transferring title of federally managed land to non‑Federal entities when the land is publicly accessible or contiguous to publicly accessible or state/local‑owned accessible land, with a set of specified exceptions. It defines what counts as a "publicly accessible tract," preserves many existing statutory disposal authorities and small‑parcel conveyances, and clarifies that the Act does not change rules about walking across adjoining public‑land corners.