Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush applauded the passage of U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry's (R-Clarendon) H.R. 2130 by the U.S. House of Representatives today. The legislation, filed in conjunction with a Senate companion bill (S. 1153) by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), will protect private property rights of landowners along the Red River from federal ownership claims. By providing legal certainty to landowners, the Red River Private Property Protection Act seeks to end questions about the federal government's ownership of disputed land along the Red River.
"Today I applaud the leadership of my friend, Congressman Thornberry, who, with the passage of this legislation, is sending a strong message that we will not tolerate illegal land grabs of the private property of Texans," said Commissioner Bush. "For more than 180 years Texans have fought off those who try to infringe upon private land rights. We will continue to fight - through legislation and legal action - on behalf of private land owners and the school children of Texas against any unlawful taking of personal property by the federal government. When it comes to property rights, don't mess with Texas."
“This is a big victory for the landowners along the Red River and also for property owners everywhere who deserve to know that the federal government cannot come in and take away what they own. I hope we can use this momentum to get the bill passed in the Senate and then signed into law by the President,” Thornberry said. “I will continue working with the landowners, local and state officials, and Senator Cornyn (R-TX) until this issue is resolved once and for all.”
Earlier this month Commissioner George P. Bush announced the General Land Office (GLO) has standing and filed an intervention in the lawsuit challenging the federal government’s unconstitutional seizure and arbitrary taking of Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) land along the Red River. The GLO filed an intervention in the current case against the blatant land grab by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Wichita Falls Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
You can read more about this legal action here: http://bit.ly/1XEh5uh.
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