Richard Pombo: “Basically what we have here is the age-old debate, the debate of whether or not we have power to the government or power…”

“Basically what we have here is the age-old debate, the debate of whether or not we have power to the government or power to the people. We get down to this basic debate many times over different issues, especially over private property issues. Whether the argument is to protect the power that the government controls over its citizens at the Federal level, the State level, or the local level, that is a debate that we continually hear from this particular side on this issue. They want to maintain that power over the citizenry. On the other side of this issue what we have is people who are arguing in favor of the private property owner, of the individual citizen, of the individual that we all represent. I think that that is one of the important distinctions in this debate. The importance of this underlying legislation is an attempt to give private property owners their so-called day in court. That is the effort that is being made. I admit that this bill does not go as far as I would like it to. I admit that the underlying legislation is a moderate attempt to achieve a very worthwhile goal. The Boehlert amendment guts even a moderate attempt to try to achieve that.”