---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 724"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "724"
heading: "Consent of States to acquisition; existing rights-of-way, easements, etc."
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/724"
units:
  - "Chapter 8 — Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge"
---

# §724. Consent of States to acquisition; existing rights-of-way, easements, etc.

- (a) No such [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) shall be acquired by the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior until the legislature of each [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) in which is situated any part of the [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) to be acquired under this chapter has consented to the [acquisition](/usc/16/620e.md?p=1) of such part by the United States for the purposes of this chapter, and, except in the case of a lease, no payment shall be made by the United States for any such [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) until title thereto is satisfactory to the Attorney General and is vested in the United States.
- (b) The existence of a right of way, easement, or other reservation or exception in respect of such [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) shall not be a bar to its [acquisition](/usc/16/620e.md?p=1) (1) if the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior determines that any such reservation or exception will in no manner interfere with the use of the [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) for the purposes of this chapter, or (2) if in the deed or other conveyance it is stipulated that any reservation or exception in respect of such [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A), in favor of the [person](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) from whom the United States receives title, shall be subject to regulations prescribed under authority of this chapter.

## Source credit

(June 7, 1924, ch. 346, § 4, 43 Stat. 650; 1939 Reorg. Plan No. II, § 4(f), eff. July 1, 1939, 4 F.R. 2731, 53 Stat. 1433.)

## Notes

### Executive Documents

### Transfer of Functions

Transfer of functions of Secretary of Agriculture to Secretary of the Interior by Reorg. Plan No. II of 1939, see Transfer of Functions note set out under section 723 of this title.