43 USC § 433a - Preference of needy families
---
identifier: "/us/usc/t43/s433a"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_prima_facie"
title: "43 USC § 433a - Preference of needy families"
title_number: 43
title_name: "PUBLIC LANDS"
section_number: "433a"
section_name: "Preference of needy families"
chapter_number: 12
chapter_name: "RECLAMATION AND IRRIGATION OF LANDS BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT"
subchapter_number: "VI"
subchapter_name: "WATER RIGHT APPLICATIONS AND LAND ENTRIES"
positive_law: false
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(June 18, 1940, ch. 395, § 1, 54 Stat. 439.)"
---
# § 433a. Preference of needy families
It is declared to be the policy of the Congress that, in the opening to entry of newly irrigated public lands, preference shall be given to families who have no other means of earning a livelihood, or who have been compelled to abandon, through no fault of their own, other farms in the United States, and with respect to whom it appears after careful study, in the case of each such family, that there is a probability that such family will be able to earn a livelihood on such irrigated lands.
---
**Source Credit**: (June 18, 1940, ch. 395, § 1, 54 Stat. 439.)