Earl Blumenauer: “The fact is, under the bill that has been proposed, there is an exemption. If the claimant feels that it would be futile…”

“The fact is, under the bill that has been proposed, there is an exemption. If the claimant feels that it would be futile to pursue this claim, there is an additional problem. They talk a lot about the small individual property owners, but the fact is the vast majority of jurisdictions in this country are small governments that cannot afford to be involved with this. So my colleagues have taken a theoretical problem for a few problems of small owners action, and they have substituted a massive burden on the part of many small governments who simply are not going to be able to undertake a well-financed aggressive development interest that seeks to move the other direction. I think it just simply reverses that presumption.”