YourVoice.Now Summary
EnvironmentCivil LibertiesTransparency & AccountabilityYour MoneyTargeted & Unrelated ProvisionsNorth Dakota could swap state land inside tribal reservations for federal land elsewhere, letting tribes take it over.
Environment
The state could not pick land that is already set aside for nature, science, or the military. Land inside a reservation is off the list too.
Each side would have to check its land for toxic waste before handing it over. Both sides would also open their records on it for review.
Large federal land swaps normally follow a set process under a 1976 public lands law. These trades would run under this plan's own rules instead.
The Secretary may study what a swap would do to the land involved. Nothing here requires that study to happen.
Federal land can be traded even when it holds minerals, including tracts with working oil and gas wells. If a lease is already pumping, the price drops by the royalties the state gets now.
Civil Liberties
When North Dakota gives up a parcel inside a reservation, the tribe can ask for it. Interior would then hold that land in trust and count it as part of the reservation.
The state and Interior would have to talk with the tribes involved before a parcel moves. The duty comes from a standing rule on dealing with tribes.
Transparency & Accountability
Anyone could read the final price reports at the BLM office that covers North Dakota. They go up 30 days before the land changes hands.
A notice that the price reports are ready would run in a widely read North Dakota paper. The same notice would go on the Interior Department's site.
Low-value parcels could be priced with a quick estimate instead of a full federal appraisal. Both sides would have to agree, and land could not be split up to slip under the limits.
Your Money
Ranchers holding a grazing lease on traded land would keep it for the rest of its term, at the same fee and herd limits. A new owner could still end it early by putting the land to other use.
Targeted & Unrelated Provisions
Four specific townships are written out of the deal by their survey coordinates. The text gives no reason for singling them out.
More about this bill
Tribes in North Dakota could gain land that sits inside their own reservations. North Dakota owns scattered parcels there, granted at statehood to raise money for schools. Under this plan, the state could hand those parcels over. In return, it would pick federal land of about the same value elsewhere in the state. If a tribe asks, the parcel would become part of its reservation. North Dakota and the Interior Department would have to talk with affected tribes first. Independent appraisers, chosen by both sides, would set the value of each parcel. If the two values do not match, the gap would be closed with cash or a running tab. That gap would be capped at 25 percent of the federal parcel's value. Cheaper, lighter appraisals would be allowed for parcels worth under $500,000 and under $500 an acre. Final appraisals would be open to the public for 30 days before a swap. Notice would run on the Interior Department's website and in a North Dakota newspaper. Some federal land would be off the table. Conservation lands, research natural areas, military land, and four named townships could not be picked. Land rich in minerals could be picked, including tracts with working oil and gas leases. The usual federal rules for public land swaps would not apply to these trades. A full environmental review would be up to the Interior Secretary, not required. Ranchers with grazing permits would keep them at the same fees until their term runs out. Outside North Dakota, you would not notice a change.
Congressional Summary
North Dakota Trust Lands Completion Act of 2026This bill allows North Dakota to exchange certain state land grant parcels (e.g., lands granted to North Dakota by Congress when it became a state) located wholly or partially within an Indian reservation for certain federal land of substantially equivalent value. North Dakota manages oil, gas, and agriculture leases on state land grant parcels to generate revenue for education and other public benefits. However, tribal reservations were created on state land grant parcels and reduced the amount of land available for revenue generation. Specifically, the bill allows the North Dakota Board of University and School Lands to exchange with the Department of the Interior state land grant parcels located wholly or partially within tribal reservations for certain public land in North Dakota administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Upon the request of a tribe, Interior must hold exchanged land within the tribe's reservation in trust on behalf of the tribe.Further, the bill provides for the continuation of active grazing operations on land exchanged under this bill.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to House
- Action Date
- 2026-04-02
- Date Added
- 2026-05-16
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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