Public Lands in Public Hands Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 718 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 718 To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture from transferring certain Federal land, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 23, 2025 Mr. Zinke (for himself and Mr. Vasquez) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture from transferring certain Federal land, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Public Lands in Public Hands Act''. SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. In this Act, the term ``publicly accessible tract'' means a tract of Federal land managed by the Secretary of the Interior or the Chief of the Forest Service that can be accessed by public road, public trail, public waterway, public easement, or public right-of-way. SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON TRANSFER OF CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND. (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture are prohibited from transferring title to Federal land to a non-Federal entity, if the Federal land is-- (1) a publicly accessible tract; or (2) contiguous with-- (A) a publicly accessible tract; or (B) a tract of land that-- (i) is owned by a State, county, or municipal government; and (ii) can be accessed by public road, public trail, public waterway, public easement, or public righ