Conrad Burns: “I rise today to join with Senator Shelby and Nickles in introducing the private property owners bill of rights. The…”

“I rise today to join with Senator Shelby and Nickles in introducing the private property owners bill of rights. The purpose of this bill is to provide a consistent Federal policy to encourage, support, and promote the private ownership of property and to ensure the constitutional and legal rights of private property owners. Private property rights are protected under the fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. A lot of us lean a lot on that fifth amendment, yet we have seen some laws that go flying through this Congress and are signed by the President that are encroaching more and more on this right which is a basis, I believe, in a free society. The bill we are introducing today is very important to my State of Montana because it makes the Federal Government respect and protect private property rights when enforcing such acts as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.”