North Dakota swaps state land for public land to return tribal land.
H.R. 2252 — North Dakota Trust Lands Completion Act of 2026 · Filed by Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) · Introduced Mar 21, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill lets North Dakota swap state school and university lands inside tribal lands. The state gets public lands in other parts of the state in return. When the state gives up tribal lands, the public agency can hold them in trust for tribes. Tribes must ask for this to happen. The swap is based on land value estimates so both sides get equal value.
Who it affects
Tribes get land back within their tribal lands. North Dakota gets public land in trade. The bill requires tribes to be asked what they think.
One thing to notice
The bill allows value gaps between trades to carry forward for five years. Lands with minerals given to the state may make money. The bill lowers the value estimate by what the public agency expects to share. The state could profit if actual money is higher.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Mar 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 21, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Mar 5, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Mar 5, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by Unanimous Consent”
- May 19, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3567-3569)”
- May 19, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- tribal lands — Land set aside by the public agency for tribes to live on and run.
- trust — A legal setup where the public agency holds land for tribes.
- value estimates — Official guesses of how much land is worth.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (15,914 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,928 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-11-03.
“North Dakota swaps state land for public land to return tribal land.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr2252/simple Report an error
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