[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16427]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 16427]]

                  THE FLEECING OF UTAH PROPERTY OWNERS

  (Mr. HANSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Constitution says that if the 
Government takes private property, the owner of the property shall 
receive just compensation. In Washington County, Utah, the desert 
tortoise was put on the endangered species list. Therefore, the U.S. 
Government required hundreds of acres of tracts for that habitat. About 
30 taxpayers were involved. They did not want to give up their ground. 
They wanted to keep it. But no, the Federal Government says, ``We've 
got to take that ground for this habitat.'' And they said, ``It's not 
taking your ground.''
  And then you ask, ``What is it taking?''
  ``Well,'' they say, ``you can keep your property but you can't put 
your foot on it. You can pay taxes on your property, but you can't use 
it. We're not taking your property.''
  So the Federal Government offered about one-fourth of the value of 
the ground. Now, is that fair? Is that just? Is that just compensation? 
I do not think it is.
  Tom Brokaw of NBC does a program called The Fleecing of America. He 
used this land issue saying these poor taxpayers fleeced the American 
Government when they got it for that price. Well, he got it wrong, as 
the press normally does. I am just amazed that the media misses one so 
far. Who really got fleeced on this, Mr. Speaker? The people who got 
fleeced were those people that gave up their ground for one-fourth of 
the value.

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