Sam Farr: “Mr. Chairman, I ask the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), does he know what the problem with his language is?…”

“Mr. Chairman, I ask the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), does he know what the problem with his language is? First of all, he is going to really muck up California law, because our State Constitution has had a long-standing and a well-litigated understanding of what adverse condemnation is. What the gentleman does, this is how he mucks up the legislation, and I do not think that was his intent, but he does it, he does not delete language in this legislation, he just adds to it. So with the provision that the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) pointed out on page 31, starting with line 18, where the gentleman describes how land can be acquired, the gentleman then comes at the end of the bill and says 'none of the amounts made available by this title may be used for adverse condemnation.' Now, the word the gentleman is adding in here which has never been put into law is what is 'adverse.' They are going to have to have a finding of fact every time a person wants to sell property. Because most property, as the gentleman knows, is done by paper condemnation. That is, it is an advantage to the seller to go through a paper condemnation. Is that paper condemnation adverse or not? If it is adverse, they cannot use these funds.”