Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
The bill authorizes North Dakota to relinquish State land grant parcels (including those within reservations) to the United States and to select unappropriated Bureau of Land Management land of substantially equivalent value in exchange.
It requires appraisals, valuation equalization (including payment or ledger accounts), hazardous-material inspections, tribal consultation, and allows the Secretary to take conveyed reservation land into trust for tribes upon request.
The measure protects treaty and existing trust rights, preserves existing grazing arrangements, withdraws selected federal land during review, and excludes pending litigation from its effect.
State-specific, technical land-exchange bills often advance if tribes and local actors support them, but appraisal, environmental, or resource interests can slow or block final approval.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a well-specified substantive land-exchange statute with strong definitional clarity, concrete operative mechanisms, and careful integration with existing law. It provides a clear implementation sequence and anticipates many edge cases associated with land, mineral, grazing, appraisal, and Tribal trust concerns.
Tribal restoration versus preservation of state school trust revenue
Tribal restoration versus preservation of state school trust revenue
Likely generally supportive because the bill creates a clear mechanism to restore state-granted lands within reservations to federal trust and facilitate tribal trust acquisitions.
Will focus on the tribal consultation, trust take-into-benefit provisions, and protections for treaty rights, while seeking stronger environmental and community safeguards.
Pragmatic and cautiously favorable if the bill resolves longstanding title issues and includes robust appraisal, transparency, and fiscal safeguards.
Will weigh benefits of dispute resolution against potential costs to state trust revenues and federal fiscal exposure.
Skeptical because it authorizes transfers of State-granted land and permits taking lands into federal trust for tribes, potentially reducing state control and school trust assets.
Concerned about federal involvement, valuation limits, and impacts on resource development.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
State-specific, technical land-exchange bills often advance if tribes and local actors support them, but appraisal, environmental, or resource interests can slow or block final approval.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Tribal restoration versus preservation of state school trust revenue
State-specific, technical land-exchange bills often advance if tribes and local actors support them, but appraisal, environmental, or resou…
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a well-specified substantive land-exchange statute with strong definitional clarity, concrete operative mechanisms, and careful integration with existing law. It p…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.