John Doolittle: “this is an important bill. I know the other side is trying to portray this as helping big developers, but the fact of…”

“this is an important bill. I know the other side is trying to portray this as helping big developers, but the fact of the matter is, this bill is designed to help the little guy and anybody else, including a big developer, who seeks to assert the constitutional right to receive just compensation for the taking of his or her property. That is just something that is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the fifth amendment. And yet, because of a network of procedures developed over the years, the effect of those procedures has been to make this amendment somehow secondary to some of the others. We all know the reality. I mean a government is fighting with taxpayer dollars; and they have, usually, a vast amount to draw upon. They already have attorneys on staff, and they have firms on contract to wage these battles with taxpayer dollars. When the little guy is seeking to defend his or her constitutional right, and it takes on the average of 9½ years to get through the Federal Court system, that is bad enough already, but then it takes a number of years to get into the Federal Court system. This bill, amongst other things, simply allows people to at least enter the Federal Court system. If anything, the bill does not go far enough because we have still got that long, drawn-out time when you, an individual, is paying lawyers at $300 or $400 an hour to litigate their claims. It is very, very difficult to reach the relief that they need.”