Settlement reached in lawsuit against Bureau of Land Management

George P. Bush announced on Wednesday, a successful settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed against the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM.) The plaintiffs included the Texas General Land Office (GLO), private property owners, and county plaintiffs. "For more than 180 years Texans have stood up against anyone who would attempt to infringe on our property rights," said Commissioner Bush in a statement. "In this case, Texas families owned and worked the land at the heart of this matter for generations, until the unfair attempt to seize it. The Land Office had held mineral rights to this land, on behalf of our children and future Texans, for nearly two centuries. Texans have always defended our land and our rights. At the end of the day, the saying remains true: Don't mess with Texas." The ruling ends a dispute which began in 2009. The case gained attention again in 2014 when the BLM announced it would implement new surveys allowing the federal government to claim ownership of a 116-mile stretch of the Red River running through Clay, Wichita, and Wilbarger counties. The claim also included mineral assets owned by the Texas Permanent School Fund. Commissioner Bush filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of the PSF in December of 2015. In March, the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas granted the motion. "I applaud President Donald Trump's administration for withdrawing the previous administration's false claim to private land," said Commissioner Bush in a statement. "Today's victory is one for both private property rights and for the schoolchildren of Texas. It's also a heartening restoration of the rule of law." The agreement protects both private property rights and the mineral rights of the school children of Texas according to the Texas Land Office. With this settlement, the BLM, under the Trump administration, has agreed the boundary once in dispute is governed by the opinion of the Supreme Court in Oklahoma v. Texas in 1923. This removes any inappropriate interference of the GLO's duty to the children of Texas. KAUZ