Duncan Faircloth: “as a life-long farmer and landowner I want to bring to the Senate's attention a letter recently written to…”

“as a life-long farmer and landowner I want to bring to the Senate's attention a letter recently written to Representative Norman Mineta by a number of groups interested in preserving the right to private ownership of land. Mr. President, this letter was written in response to a ``Dear Colleague'' sent out by Mr. Mineta sharing his views on the property rights debate. I join these groups in challenging his view that property rights advocates are somehow exaggerating the issue. Like I said, I have farmed and tended land all of my life. Never in that time has the Federal Government been more intrusive and bureaucratic in their approach to private property and landowners. The rules and regulations imposed on the modern farmer are enough to make him feel as though he were a sharecropper for Uncle Sam. As the letter to Mr. Mineta details, the Federal wetland program is absolute disaster. A new study concluded that the average permit application takes 373 days to complete. That's 1 year, 1 week, and 1 day--all to find out it you are approved to use your own land as you see fit. No one in the Congress will deny that certain wetlands need protection. But I would like Mr. Mineta feel what a small farmer must feel when he must hire a trained scientist to come on his land to tell him exactly what is and what isn't a wetland. Or, more precisely, how much of his land is or is not subject to Federal control.”