James Oberstar: “Madam Chairman, the subject at hand here is a matter that the gentleman from Connecticut and I did indeed discuss in the…”

“Madam Chairman, the subject at hand here is a matter that the gentleman from Connecticut and I did indeed discuss in the course of the markup on the Coast Guard authorization bill. I raised two questions. One was with respect to the funding the gentleman has discussed and language that he has read accurately from the committee bill. The second was the eminent domain issue. I recall how very poignantly the gentleman, in fact, we met in the Democratic sitting room off the committee floor, off the committee dias, told me how very poignantly his family had been displaced by an eminent domain proceeding and that he did not want to see anybody displaced by eminent domain. I read to him the language that the gentleman from Oregon has just a moment ago referred to from the Hartford newspaper. I was very distressed by this. People had written to me about it, especially that 87-year-old Italian immigrant woman. Half Italian myself, I deeply sympathized with it. But in further reviewing the matter since the issue was before the State supreme court, I said, I will desist from the eminent domain issue.”