William Tauzin: “The CARA bill provides currently that Federal agencies using funds appropriated by this act may not apply any regulation…”

“The CARA bill provides currently that Federal agencies using funds appropriated by this act may not apply any regulation on lands until the lands or water or an interest therein is acquired. CARA already does that. It says, in effect, that before the Government actually acquires a land, it cannot impose any regulations or limitations on use on that land even though it proposes to buy that land. CARA also says, 'unless authorized to do so by another act of Congress.' That gives the gentleman from California (Mr. Pombo) some trouble and other Members some trouble. But let me tell my colleagues what that means. What that means is that Congress has, in effect, passed laws that regulate property, not all of which I agree with, not all of which many of us agree with. Congress has passed laws to protect, for example, mining in public parks and recreational areas and wilderness areas to protect against certain activities in those parks. It certainly has passed a lot of laws and regulations aimed at protecting species that are endangered and threatened and the wetlands and a whole host of Federal environmental protective legislation. That does affect potentially the use of their property.”