The Public Record
The answer is that plaintiff has brought the lawsuit and has incurred those costs upon the defendant in a case where the judge has found the lawsuit never should have been brought. That is what fee shifting is all about. If the plaintiff…
A good legal system is one that deters bad behavior and, therefore, leads to fewer lawsuits. It is one in fact that encourages settlements of merited cases rather than the massive settlement of all cases regardless of merits. On that test…
I have great sympathy for those who believe this bill is moving too fast this session, but I remind my colleagues that I offered this bill two Congresses ago. I crafted this bill two Congresses ago with the hopes we could have hearings two…
I think we need to again make it crystal clear to the Members who are in their offices listening to this debate, when we defeat this amendment, which changes two provisions of the bill, it changes it from 10 to 20, but also from the…
Mr. Chairman, we need to make one more point before we end this debate. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank] said or intimated that the real intent is to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Wetlands Act. Let me read from the…
Nobody in this room, I hope, believes that the Government has the right to come and take 10, 20, percent, any amount of your property. If you really believe that--the gentleman makes the point--how many people are willing to donate 20…
Mr. Chairman, what happens under the bill is that the property owner who believes he is affected by one of these statutes, endangered species, 404 wetlands or swampbusters, literally goes to the agency and makes a request, am I affected by…
Mr. Chairman, the amount that the Government is going to have to pay any landowner for taking his property is going to depend mightily on the actions of the agency from this date forward. If the agency wants to declare 60 percent of the…
let me reassert two facts that I hope should be abundantly clear. First of all, the basis on which we amend it as it comes out of committee does not affect State actions. To take water rights away from people, local actions to do that are…
The amendment provides that when the excessive regulations of the Government exceed 50 percent of the value of the property, that the landowner then has a right to demand the Government purchase the property. At that point "It is yours…
In recent years the issue of property rights has been hotly debated, as a growing movement of property owners at the grassroots level feel that their rights are being seriously infringed upon. Some have characterized this movement as…
I received a letter today that I want to read to the House. It is a letter from a young man named Patrick Becnel: My name is Patrick R. Becnel. I am twenty-eight years old and married with two children. I am a life long resident of…
No, contractual changes are not. Agreements are not. It is only when the Government mandates a change, a regulation, that diminishes the value or subtracts from the property right that triggers the action for an arbitration and…
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…
It definitely was. And if the Government wants to repurchase the State of Louisiana for the purpose of the gentleman or any other purposes, we are indeed willing to negotiate, but I suggest you pay a fair price.
under both the bill and the amendment we proposed, if the use is proscribed for reasons of toxic runoff, nuisance, all those kinds of issues, then it is not a compensable diminution of use. It is only when the use is proscribed for…
I want Members to know a little bit more about Mr. Bowles. Mr. Bowles was a member, in fact an officer of a conservation group in Brazoria County, TX. He was one of the good guys. The group was designed to watch the Corps of Engineers so…
The problem is, if we do not straighten out this language as we straighten out the bill's focus, if I can make the point, Federal regulatory law in wetlands and endangered species areas can be and is, in fact, duplicated on the State…
The point is, regardless of what the value of the land is and how it is calculated, loss of a subsidy does not trigger the arbitration proceeding under this bill.
Today we begin a historic debate, one that I and many Members of this House have long awaited, the debate on private property rights. I want to remind the House that this debate started with Democrats. It was Democrats who put together the…
we need to correct the Record whenever we hear misstatements. The fact of the matter is the eagle was saved not under the Endangered Species Act, it was saved under FIFRA, Federal Insecticide and Rodenticide Act, which banned DDT. That is…
I suppose if Alan Greenspan ever did us a favor in this country and lowered interest rates, that would be an agency action that enhanced our values, but I am telling you we cannot count all of these things in America at these arbitration…
I believe the fabric of the relationship between those who created this Government and this Government has been ripped apart for one word more than any other. The word is ``arrogance.'' There is a reason why people in this country believe…
That was an excellent discussion of how this bill does not have to cost money if the agencies start being responsible. I want to give you a similar example. Mr. Spiller of Lake Fausse Point in Iberia Parish, LA, built a crawfish pond on…
A court in Florida Rock said, Nothing in the language of the fifth amendment compels a court to find a taking only when the government divests the total ownership of the property. The fifth amendment prohibits the uncompensated taking of…
Politicians like William Tauzin
