Graves’ legislation would require trail sponsors to get sign off from all impacted landowners and fully compensate landowners when a project moves forward.
Require Rails to Trails sponsors to get approval from all impacted landowners and fully compensate landowners when a project moves forward.
Occurrences
Evidence
Congress.gov lists H.R.4924, Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act, sponsored by Rep. Sam Graves, introduced 08/08/2025, referred to House Natural Resources, and still only at the 'Introduced' status.
The bill would require signed approval from each affected property owner and would require trail-use agreements to compensate property owners for additional costs, with minimum compensation at fair market value.
Current 16 U.S.C. 1247(d) allows interim trail use when a state, political subdivision, or qualified private organization assumes management, liability, and taxes; it does not require approval from every impacted landowner or sponsor-paid fair-market compensation.
The STB rule requires a trail sponsor statement assuming management, legal liability, and taxes, and provides for CITU/NITU negotiation with the railroad; it does not condition approval on all impacted landowners signing off.
The Supreme Court described rails-to-trails transfers despite reversionary interests and held that, if a taking occurs, compensation is available under the Tucker Act rather than through an explicit sponsor-payment requirement in the Trails Act.
Assessments
Sam Graves sponsored H.R.4924, the Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act, which directly matched the promise by requiring affected landowner approval and compensation. However, Congress.gov still lists the bill as introduced and referred to committee, with no passage or enactment. Existing federal rails-to-trails law and regulations still do not require universal impacted-landowner approval or up-front sponsor-paid full compensation, so the promised policy outcome has not been delivered despite a serious legislative effort.