[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24428]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             EMINENT DOMAIN

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, last June, in a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme 
Court ruled that the government may force property owners to sell their 
property to make way for private economic development when officials 
deem it beneficial to the public. With that decision, Susette Kelo and 
15 of her neighbors lost their fight to hold on to their homes. One 
neighbor forced to sell her home was born there in 1918 and lived in 
the house her entire life.
  The properties Kelo and her neighbors are being forced to abandon 
will not be a replaced with a needed road or school but with upscale 
housing and a marina.
  The sanctity of private property is one that Americans hold dear, and 
this Supreme Court decision threatens that. This House has 
appropriately responded by offering the Protection of Homes, Small 
Businesses, and Private Property Act of 2005 which would protect 
property by limiting the power of eminent domain.
  Mr. Speaker, the fifth amendment to the Constitution prohibits the 
government taking private property except for public use. The 
protection of our homes, small business, and other private property 
rights against government seizure is one of the fundamental principles 
this country was founded upon. If the highest court in the land will 
not protect this right, it is up to us to do so.

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