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Title 43 — Public LandsRelease 119-73not60

§451a Persons Eligible for Benefits

Title 43 › Chapter 12— RECLAMATION AND IRRIGATION OF LANDS BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT › Subchapter VII— EXCHANGE AND AMENDMENT OF FARM UNITS › § 451a

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must give the benefits in section 451 and may give the benefits in sections 451b through 451k to two kinds of people. One is someone who legally took an unpatented farm unit on a Federal irrigation project in good faith and did not know and had no reason to believe it was too small to support a family. The other is a resident owner whose project land is too small to support a family, who otherwise could enter unclaimed public lands under section 161, who got the land as an entire farm unit under the Federal reclamation laws (or inherited it from someone who did), and who transfers to the United States, free of all claims, all the land served by the project or the part the Secretary designates.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §451a

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The benefits of section 451 of this title shall, and those of sections 451b to 451k of this title may, be extended by the Secretary to (a) any lawful assignee of an unpatented farm unit on a Federal irrigation project who took the assignment in good faith not knowing and not having reason to believe the farm unit to be insufficient to support a family; and (b) any resident owner of private lands on any such project whose lands shall be found to be insufficient to support a family and (i) who, apart from his ownership of the lands to be conveyed pursuant to clause (iii) hereof and apart from his having previously exhausted his homestead right, if such be the case, is eligible to enter unappropriated public lands under section 161 11 See References in Text note below. of this title, (ii) who lawfully acquired his lands as an entire farm unit under the Federal reclamation laws from the United States or, in the case of a widow, widower, heir, or devisee, from a spouse or ancestor, as the case may be, who so acquired them, and (iii) who conveys, free from all encumbrances, to the United States all of his lands served by the project or such portion thereof as the Secretary may designate.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 161 of this title, referred to in text, was repealed by Pub. L. 94–579, title VII, § 702, Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2787. The Federal reclamation laws, referred to in par. (b)(ii), are identified in section 451i of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 451a

Title 43 — Public Lands

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60