Bob Bennett: “I do not believe that this amendment would be one, as it has been characterized, that it would gut the bill. I think, to…”

“I do not believe that this amendment would be one, as it has been characterized, that it would gut the bill. I think, to the contrary, it would establish some public confidence in the Federal Government's stability in terms of its promises. The amendment, I believe, provides the Government with the incentive to offer fair prices because there is a time limit on it. We all know the experience of having a seller who is in some distress and a buyer who is perfectly willing to wait him out, and that is the circumstance we are in with respect to inholdings all across the country. I do not want that situation to occur here. I want the Federal Government to have incentive to offer a fair price, if not to Catellus, who has a degree of leverage, to every inholder that is there. Madam President, there are billions of dollars of private lands across the country that the Department of the Interior has promised to purchase. Many of these landowners have been waiting for years to have the Government pay for the land that they have agreed to purchase. But there is no spur anywhere to get the Federal Government to act.”