[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 136 (Wednesday, September 14, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H6142-H6143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AMERICAN LAND ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, many, many years ago the second 
American Revolution took place when Washington, D.C., was invaded by 
the British in the War of 1812. Many forget that the Capitol, the White 
House, and Washington, D.C., were burned to the

[[Page H6143]]

ground by the British. And after the War of 1812 was over with, America 
found itself in a situation that's not unfamiliar with us today. 
America was out of money.
  So what did people decide to do here in this body of Congress about 
how to get more money into the Federal Treasury? They thought of a 
unique approach that maybe we ought to think of and do today.
  Right now we talk about raising taxes, cutting spending, and we need 
more revenue. Maybe we ought to think outside of the box when it comes 
to revenue instead of more government taking from the people and giving 
it to its special groups. Let's do what they did at the end of the War 
of 1812.
  The Federal Government decided that it would sell some of the land to 
Americans--what a novel thought--and let Americans own America. They 
could produce that land, and then they could pay more taxes. And that's 
what they did at the end of the War of 1812.
  We talk about the land in America. Who is the biggest landowner in 
this country? Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam owns 27 percent of the land mass in 
the United States. This poster here shows the land area in red, 
including Alaska, that is owned by the Federal Government, Uncle Sam. 
Twenty-seven percent of the land! Half of the land west of the 
Mississippi, or in the West, belongs to the Federal Government. Those 
folks in the West, half of it belongs to Uncle Sam. He's their neighbor 
in every western State. It's different in the East because much of that 
land was sold at the end of the War of 1812.
  Now, 27 percent, what does that mean? That's really hard to 
understand how much that is. If you were to superimpose the 27 percent 
of the land mass in the United States into Europe, you would find that 
Uncle Sam would own almost all of Europe. Western Europe is about 27 
percent of the land mass of the United States. And of course that 
includes the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, 
Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, and even Spain.
  Now, we're talking about a lot of land. Does Uncle Sam really need 
all of that land? Much of it's unproductive, not paying any taxes, not 
paying any revenue to local and State governments.
  So maybe we should do something that our forefathers, our ancestors 
did--sell some of that land to Americans and allow that revenue to come 
into the Federal Treasury so we can pay off all of our debts that we 
have accumulated over the years. Twenty-seven percent of the land mass 
is 623 million acres in this country.
  Ronald Reagan tried to do that when he was President, but it did not 
go very far at all. You know, even President Obama mentioned about a 
month ago that there's 300 acres in Los Angeles County that's owned by 
the Federal Government. We could sell that for $2 billion.
  So maybe we need to think outside of the box. I've introduced the 
American Land Act. We talk about the American Jobs Act. The American 
Land Act would require that the Federal Government sell a portion of 
that land over a period of years.
  Now, I want to be careful to state we're not talking about the 
national parks. We're not talking about Yosemite. We're not talking 
about the marshes and environmentally sensitive areas in this country. 
We're talking about unused land by the Federal Government. And then we 
could raise some revenue.
  I believe that this could be up to about $200 billion of revenue that 
would be brought into the United States. Sell it to Americans and that 
will bring revenue into our treasury. When Americans own America, they 
can also develop that land. Then they can be productive and then they 
can pay even more taxes.

                              {time}  1020

  When people own land, they pay property tax. That tax primarily goes 
to local and State governments, which pays for our school systems. So 
that undeveloped land, that unused land, some of that should be sold to 
Americans. Let Americans buy American. Real property in the hands of 
real Americans. What a novel thought that is.
  Uncle Sam, the Federal Government, is all about power and control 
over everything. Loosen up a little, and let Americans buy part of 
America. Uncle Sam shouldn't prevent Americans from having a real stake 
or share in our country, the United States of America. It doesn't 
belong to Uncle Sam--at least it shouldn't. It should belong to 
Americans. The United States owns most of the grand estate in this 
country, and it's time to let more Americans own it because America 
should belong to Americans.
  And that's just the way it is.

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