I first of all want to say I appreciate the support that has been brought by both sides of the aisle and by so many Members to get us to this point today. This is a very important day for the House of Representatives, not just because we…

again, it is a privilege to be here debating this important measure here today. Before I get into the substance of my remarks, I want to give some thanks to some of the people who have really been there when it counts, particularly to the…

Mr. Speaker, I came to talk about a very critical issue, and I want to thank the Committee on Rules for making this in order, the lockbox amendment. We have been fighting now for close to 2 years to make one of the most important reforms…

once again I stand in strong opposition to the efforts to eliminate some of the critical nuclear research that is necessary for our country's nuclear energy programs. We fought these kinds of battles repeatedly, but I think it is important…

I am referring specifically to section 5 of the legislation that we are discussing, which is entitled exceptions, and it basically states there that compensation will not be made under this act with respect to an agency action, the primary…

I appreciate that; and so to emphasize again this is talking about when a person is seeking to use their own private property in a way that could cause damage to someone else's property, and somehow final agency action becomes involved…

I think the gentleman's point about the fifth amendment is correct. Senator Dole clearly said he supports separate legislation that does address compensation. Senator Dole is saying although his initial letter does not address that issue…

I want to address the comments which have just been made. It is correct that this amendment would be better than nothing, but it is much worse than the current statute we are considering. The reason is, as was said by the gentleman from…

I would just ask one question. I thought the gentlewoman said at the beginning of her debate that under this amendment, there would be a right for judicial review or the opportunity to go to court.

I understand the point. But we still have a difference of opinion on this in terms of whether it is viable, because we have agencies being required it do an analysis but no penalty, no requirement that they are to be reviewed. In fact…

That is the question. Does that change also that portion of the act which simply is talking about the specific property impacted to say we are talking about all of the property owned by the property owner?

In that context, then, the agency would not be able to continuously, budget cycle after budget cycle, dodge the obligation of payment here by simply programming funds around or saying that the funds were insufficient?

Just to follow up on that, Mr. Chairman, if an agency failed to pay a claim and then stated their reason was they did not have money in their claim fund or whatever part of their budget was allocated to payment of claims, as I read the…

I would ask the gentleman one other question. On section 5, as we have talked earlier today, subsection 2 says, ``No compensation is made under this act with regard to damage to specific property, other than the property whose use is…

As I read it, the amendment says neither the sufficiency nor any other aspect of a private property impact analysis under this section is subject to judicial review.

We have to understand, in this debate, the difference between protections under the U.S. Constitution and what this statute seeks to do. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the constitutional protections relate to what amounts to a…

Mr. Chairman, I think it is important that we respond to some of the arguments that are being made here, because some of them are just wrong, and others need to be clarified. Let us go through some of them. First of all, it has been said…

the amendment allows compensation only if an agency does not conduct a property impact analysis. If the agency does conduct that analysis, they do not have to compensate, regardless what the impact analysis said.

If the agency is successfully able to identify a way to impact the property without totally taking it, there is no compensation as long as they analyze it and say so.

The definition of use of property is defined in the statute to say, when the use of property is limited by an agency action, if a particular legal right to use that property no longer exists because of the action. You are talking about a…

yesterday we truly did get off to a good start. We began fulfilling many of the promises to reform this Congress and to do what the American people have asked us to do, and we did it in a bipartisan fashion. Yes, there are a few detractors…

Mr. Speaker, let us understand what this debate is about. We have before us title II of a proposal that has over 25 major and important reforms and a motion to commit that will be coming that will say, Let's not consider these reforms…

I, too, would like to stand and raise a concern with regard to the language in the legislation dealing with federally reserved water rights. Water has been an issue in many of our wilderness debates over the last few years, and one of the…

let us get it clear what this debate is about. The question is whether we should try to stop crime or whether we should stop the ownership of firearms, and the first point that needs to be made is, if this legislation is far overbroad, as…

the bottom line here is that we need a balanced budget amendment that does not have loopholes that will allow Congress to continue operating the same way it has in the past. That is the whole purpose of this battle. I must agree with those…