Political Quotes

“most of our citizens look at the title of this legislation. It has a sweeping name, the Private Property Protection Act. When you look at the sweeping title of this bill, one assumes that all American property owners are protected. In fact, this legislation protects only a limited group of private property owners, those property owners whose use or development of their property is regulated by the Federal Government. The typical homeowner that we all represent, and there are 65 million of them, live in an already-constructed home, they use their property in a typical fashion, and they are not regulated by the wetlands law, the endangered species law, the reclamation law, and the various laws outlined in this bill, and that is why those 65 million typical homeowners are not protected under the legislation. I believe that these typical homeowners are going to be surprised that they are not protected. I think they deserve consideration, and it is why I offer this amendment on behalf of myself and the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Gilchrest], a bipartisan amendment, to make sure that the typical homeowner gets a fair shake and that some needed balance is brought to the legislation. As written now, the legislation provides exceptions when agencies do not have to pay compensation for agency actions that diminish the value of private property.”