Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Boundary Revision Act Of 2007
Floor Speech
CARL SANDBURG HOME NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE BOUNDARY REVISION ACT OF 2007
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Mr. Speaker, 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.
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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.
Right now, I am working on the Continental Divide Trail, which goes north to south from the Mexico border to the Canadian border. Since 1978, it did not have one mile that had actually come from private landowners in New Mexico.
I believe in the park system and I believe in the trail system of the United States Government, but I do not believe that the government should or could be able to intimidate, to harass, to cause people to become willing sellers. And that is my fear in this legislation, that it does not go far enough and is not explicit enough.
I have expressly worked to get all of the landowners through the Second District of New Mexico, including 22 miles on the Acoma Indian Reservation, where they did not want any Federal presence, no people coming across their land, and now they are excited about the prospect.
So I support the concept of preservation, and I support the concept of our national parks, but I will fight to the last breath to protect the private property rights of the people in this country, because it is a constitutional right. The right to private property is the basis of our economic and, therefore, all other freedoms.
So, Mr. Speaker, we simply say that in this bill ``the willing seller'' is not hard enough; that we want assurance that eminent domain will not be used to acquire land, water, or interests in land or water under section 3 of the bill.
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