William Tauzin: “Let me reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman, and quote from the Court of Claims in the Florida Rock decision, again…”

“Let me reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman, and quote from the Court of Claims in the Florida Rock decision, again: ``Government may not circumvent the takings clause by defining an activity as pollution and rendering it noxious by fiat.'' It said in Florida Rock that you cannot get away with that anymore. You cannot tell people in America they cannot farm their land, they cannot build houses on their land, because you consider it pollution. The court says that protecting wetlands is not protecting against pollution, necessarily. It said in that case, Mr. Chairman, that protecting wetlands for the good of all Americans, which is a good and worthwhile goal, is a public responsibility, not the responsibility of the few landowners in America who happen to own the wetlands. If we want to protect the wetlands against uses that Mr. Bowles would like to put his lot to in the subdivision of Bresoria County, when all his neighbors built houses, if we want to prevent him from doing that in the guise of protecting wetlands, then we need to pay for that policy, not Mr. Bowles.”