John Conyers: “Mr. Chairman, the simple fact of the matter is the takings legislation is a budget buster. We have already been told by…”

“Mr. Chairman, the simple fact of the matter is the takings legislation is a budget buster. We have already been told by the Office of Management and Budget that it will increase the deficit by at least several billion dollars during the fiscal years 1995 to 1998 alone. The bill contains no provisions to offset the increased deficit spending. It creates, in effect, a new entitlement program that will surely drive up the deficit just as we are trying to do the opposite. That is why we had to have so many waivers of the budget bill to even get this measure up on the floor. It will require a whole new class of Federal officials to evaluate claims and will lead to much more bureaucracy, redtape, and litigations that will be borne by ordinary American taxpayers. In effect, H.R. 925 is a reverse Robin Hood. Ordinary Americans will end up paying to enrich wealthy speculators and the 65 million homeowners would lose because their tax dollars would go to pay off speculators or also their property values would fall because of reduced health, safety, and environmental protection that would otherwise go to their communities. The takings legislation is supported by the mining companies, the developers, the industrial polluters. It is opposed by 30 State attorneys general. Forty States have already rejected takings legislation and even 9 have gone as far as to adopt the assessment legislation proposed and similar to the Porter-Farr measure.”