[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 3, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FEDERAL LAND GRAB
(Mr. REHBERG asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, where will it all end? First the EPA
decides to regulate breathing, and now we learn that the Department of
the Interior is planning a land grab that is so brazen that it is
difficult to believe.
By misusing the Antiquities Act, the White House is planning to lock
up more than 13 million acres of land in 11 Western States, including
more than 2.5 million in Montana alone, much of which is privately
owned. And they can do it without so much as one single public hearing
or a vote in Congress.
Some of that land belongs to private citizens who have no idea that
the Federal Government is planning to kick them off their ranches. If
the government can do this to them, what can it do to you?
When policies like cap-and-trade, government-run health care, and
establishment of new Federal lands are unpopular, you don't merely
bypass Congress or change the rule to ram it through. Americans are
sick of secret bureaucratic overreach and Washington, D.C., tricks.
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