The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to convey the United States’ reversionary interests in a discrete parcel of BLM-administered land in Sacramento to the owners of the adjoining parcels. The transfers occur only when an eligible owner requests conveyance and pays the appraised value.
This is a narrowly targeted conveyance that converts federal contingent interests into fee interests held by private owners. For local stakeholders it clears title clouds that can impede development, while for federal land managers it monetizes an underused parcel and channels proceeds into the Federal Land Disposal Account for use under the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires the Secretary to offer and convey the United States’ reversionary interest in approximately 8.43 acres of BLM land in Sacramento to qualifying adjacent parcel owners upon request, and to complete the conveyance within two years after a request. Fair market value must be determined by an appraisal that follows Federal Land Policy and Management Act valuation rules using the Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions and USPAP.
Who It Affects
Owners of record of the parcels that abut the identified BLM land (only the owner at the time of request may buy the interest), the BLM and Interior Department staff who process conveyances, local governments and developers who face fewer title constraints post-transfer, and appraisers/surveyors engaged to support the sale.
Why It Matters
The measure turns a federal contingent interest into sellable property, clearing title impediments that often block redevelopment and private investment. It also creates a replicable model for disposing of small, situational federal reversionary interests while ensuring proceeds flow into an existing federal disposal account rather than general revenues.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The core of the bill is Section 2. It starts with a map-defined parcel: roughly 8.43 acres of BLM-administered land in Sacramento identified as "Proposed Easements to be Released" on a November 7, 2022 map.
The statute defines who can buy: only the owner of record of an included parcel at the time they request the conveyance may ask to buy the United States’ reversionary interest in that specific parcel; owners cannot buy interests tied to parcels they do not own.
When an eligible owner makes a request, the Secretary must offer the applicable reversionary interest and complete the conveyance within two years of receiving the request. The sale price is not arbitrary: the Secretary must determine fair market value consistent with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, using an appraisal prepared under the Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions and the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.
Beyond the sale price, the purchaser must also cover transactional expenses — surveys, appraisals, and administrative costs associated with the conveyance.Proceeds from each sale are not deposited to the Treasury’s general fund; instead the statute directs receipts into the Federal Land Disposal Account established under the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act, and requires use consistent with that Act. Finally, Section 3 preserves certain preexisting transportation rights by ensuring the conveyance does not reduce a main-track right-of-way to less than 50 feet on each side of the centerline as of enactment, and it explicitly declines to validate claims arising from adverse possession, prescription, or abandonment not previously confirmed by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
Those limits narrow the scope of what the conveyed interest actually removes from federal ownership.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The covered land is about 8.43 acres and is identified on a November 7, 2022 map titled "Lands Proposed for Release from Any and All Reversionary Interests of the United States.", Only the owner of record of a parcel at the time of request may seek to buy the United States’ reversionary interest in that parcel; owners cannot acquire interests for parcels they don’t currently own.
After a buyer’s request, the Secretary must offer and convey the applicable interest and complete the sale within two years, contingent on payment of the appraised price.
Fair market value must be set under FLPMA appraisal rules and based on appraisals that comply with the Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions and USPAP; purchasers also pay all related survey, appraisal, and administrative costs.
Section 3 preserves existing transportation rights (protecting a minimum 50-foot each-side main-track right‑of‑way) and explicitly refuses to validate adverse possession or prescription claims not previously confirmed.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Makes the statute officially the "Reversionary Interest Conveyance Act." This is procedural but matters for statutory citation and locating the provision in legislative and regulatory references.
Definitions and map reference
Defines the covered land (approximately 8.43 acres) by reference to a dated map and pins key terms: "buyer," "reversionary interest," and "Secretary." The map-based definition means the exact parcels depend on the boundaries shown on that map, so any boundary discrepancies between the map and local parcel lines will need resolution during the conveyance process.
Offer and conveyance; conditions
Requires the Secretary to offer the reversionary interest to eligible buyers and to convey the interest upon payment. Conveyances are expressly subject to valid existing rights and must be for not less than fair market value. Practically, that means existing easements, rights-of-way, and other encumbrances survive the sale and diminish nothing required to be retained by third parties.
Valuation standards and purchaser costs
Directs valuation under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act using appraisals that meet UASFLA and USPAP standards. It also imposes on the purchaser responsibility for all transaction-related costs—surveys, appraisals, and administrative expenses—shifting routine conveyance costs away from federal appropriations and onto buyers, which can affect demand for these sales.
Disposition of proceeds
Requires that sale proceeds be deposited into the Federal Land Disposal Account established under the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act and used consistent with that Act. That channels receipts to a statutory vehicle designed to facilitate further land transactions rather than to unrestricted federal spending.
Statutory construction protecting rights-of-way and rejecting adverse-possession confirmations
Protects the railroad-related right-of-way by preventing any conveyance that would reduce the main-track ROW to under 50 feet from the centerline, and it clarifies that the statute does not validate adverse possession, prescription, or abandonment claims not previously confirmed by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. These limits constrain the practical scope of what is being conveyed and reduce litigation risk tied to presumptive title extinguishment.
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Who Benefits
- Owners of adjacent parcels in Sacramento — gain the opportunity to remove a federal reversionary cloud on neighboring land and, if they purchase, consolidate fee title that facilitates development, financing, and property transfers.
- Local governments and developers — benefit from clearer title lines and reduced legal uncertainty, which can unlock redevelopment projects, expand the local tax base, and streamline permitting tied to formerly encumbered parcels.
- Bureau of Land Management / Department of the Interior — can monetize a small, administratively awkward federal interest, reduce future management burdens, and direct proceeds into a statutory disposal account to support further land transactions.
- Railroad/right‑of‑way holders and transportation planners — gain clarity that core transportation rights will be preserved (minimum 50‑foot each-side main-track protection), reducing risks that conveyance might inadvertently impair existing rail operations.
Who Bears the Cost
- Purchasing owners — must pay the full appraised fair market value plus all transaction costs (surveys, appraisals, administrative fees), which may be significant and deter some buyers.
- BLM/Interior staff — must allocate time and resources to process requests, supervise appraisals and surveys, and manage legal and title work; unless additional resources are provided, this shifts workloads within the agency.
- Appraisers and surveyors — take on the technical workload and professional liability of producing appraisals and boundary determinations under strict federal standards.
- Future federal beneficiaries — by converting reversionary interests to private ownership, the federal government foregoes potential future strategic uses or revenues from those specific interests, reducing long‑term public control of the parcels.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill balances two legitimate objectives: clearing federal title clouds to enable local redevelopment and ensuring the federal government receives full fair value and retains crucial transportation rights; those goals pull in different directions because maximizing local transfer and economic renewal often favors lower transaction friction and faster timelines, whereas safeguarding public assets demands rigorous valuation, preserved encumbrances, and potentially slower, costlier procedures.
The bill addresses a narrow, map‑defined set of federal interests but raises several implementation and valuation issues. Reversionary interests are not fee simple; they are contingent future interests whose market value can be difficult to estimate because potential uses are constrained by existing rights, local zoning, or railroad encumbrances.
Appraisals that comply with federal standards (UASFLA and USPAP) are robust but rely on comparables and assumptions that can produce widely divergent valuations for unique, small parcels. That variability can create disputes over whether the federal government is receiving truly fair market value.
The purchaser-pays approach shifts near-term costs away from the federal government but may selectively limit who participates: sophisticated owners or developers with capital will be more likely to buy, while smaller owners may be priced out. The map-based coverage also risks boundary and title mismatches with county parcel maps, which will require survey work and likely title curatives.
Finally, directing proceeds into the Federal Land Disposal Account restricts how receipts may be used, which helps fund related transactions but means localities do not receive direct proceeds for municipal priorities.
Operationally, the two-year completion requirement creates a hard deadline for the Secretary after a request, but it does not allocate additional resources to BLM to hit that timeline; that could lead to delays or pressure to expedite work that typically requires careful title and environmental review. Section 3’s explicit refusal to validate adverse possession claims reduces one class of litigation risk, but it may leave outstanding boundary disputes unresolved and push owners to pursue quiet title actions in state court.
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