Steve Pearce: “we are moving to recommit this bill in order to provide an amendment that would prohibit the Secretary of Interior from…”

“we are moving to recommit this bill in order to provide an amendment that would prohibit the Secretary of Interior from using eminent domain to acquire land, water, or interest in land or water under section 3 of the bill. Now, most of you, like me, received probably the hardest phone calls from both Democrats and Republicans alike when our Supreme Court made the Kelo decision which said that local entities could, in fact, use eminent domain to acquire property from private individuals. This motion to recommit is extremely simple. We do not want the Park Service to use eminent domain to take over property. I sat as the chairman of the National Park Subcommittee in the Resources Committee for all of the last year and part of the year before that, and I will tell you that the most disturbing things that happened in committee were that we heard testimony from people around the Appalachian Trail where the willing seller that is referenced in the bill, the underlying bill today, the willing seller legislation was in fact used to threaten, to intimidate, to cause people to become 'willing sellers' against their will.”