September 17, 1999 Agri News article by Patrick Goggins: IF YOU DON'T THINK THIS IS SERIOUS THEN DON'T BELLYACHE DOWN THE ROAD! The fate of Grizzly bear introduction is involved in this issue! In fact, the fate of Montana's lifestyle is wrapped up in this issue.
What happens to a business or a corporation when one entity owns 51% or more of the stock?
It's pretty simple, isn't it? They control the company. With that said, wouldn't you agree that, if our government gets to a position where they own and control 51% or more of our land and resources, we as members of the public might lose control of our country and government? I think it stands to reason that this is a true statement
We're in a position now in America where the government owns 40.1% [48.5% in 11 western states and growing] of the land base in America. That's the local governments, the state governments, and the federal government. If you read the Constitution of the United States and its preamble, you know that our Constitutional form of government here in America only works and only will continue to work when the citizens own and control the land base of the nation. That's the way it was set up. Our founding fathers were very careful to make sure that's the way it was set up.
We have Democrats and Republicans alike that are pushing a situation through Congress, as you read this, on a Fast Track basis. There are two bills that are being considered right now before the holiday recess this fall, and what these bills would give the federal government is up to $1.5 billion a year, and that' s every year, without any Congressional oversight. This money would be used to buy private property for the environmental agenda. I'll say that again: to buy up private property for the environmental agenda!
Congressman Don Young, R-Alaska, has written many articles about being a staunch property rights defender; yet he is the original sponsor of this bill in the House. Senator Frank Murkowski, R-Arkansas, filed it in the US Senate, and as I mentioned before, they're on the Fast Track. This bill in the house is HR 701, and in the Senate, it's S-25. It's known as the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA). The report I read shows several key states are going to receive a staggering amount of federal dollars on a yearly basis if they can get this bill passed: Louisiana $361,874,373; Texas, $204,617,393; Alaska $149,966,000; Mississippi $84332,964; Michigan $45,442,767; and Arkansas $11,641,000. Understand now: most of this money must be used to buy up private land - that' s the name of the game. "must be used" are the key words. Environmentalists have been working most of the last 30 years trying to get something like this put through Congress. Democrats have been pushing it hard. Before, the Republicans stopped this kind of legislation, but not so this time. It appears as though both Republicans and Democrats are pushing for it, and of course President Clinton and his crew are all for it. It will be a shoe in if it gets through Congress.
I know you're busy, very busy, but send an e-mail, a wire, a fax, a something to your representatives and senators in Washington. This is coming up, and you better let them know what your feelings are. We don't need to have the US government owning any more land, not one acre, than they own today.
What this means is a short-sighted look from our beloved legislators to absolutely sell out American private property for federal welfare, and that's what it is.
If this legislation gets into effect, it's not going to help willing sellers at all a bit. All it's going to do is create a host of unwilling sellers. If a landowner refuses to sell his property to the federal government, the government simply will load the properly down with enough regulations, problems, and 'uncontrollable' to make it unusable. Who's that leave? It leaves the government, the environmental groups, the Nature Conservancy. And we've seen enough of the Nature Conser- vancy and other environmental movements in the last few years to have gotten our attention.
These two bills are flat dangerous. I hope you'll pay attention. I hope you'll respond. Even if you're not a user of public lands or leases and even if you own your whole outfit outright, this affects you, or could.
Russia had a situation happen similar to this nearly 70 years ago, and it ended up with the property rights all in its hands of the Russian government, which was very benevolent to its citizens and gave each one of the farmers deed to three acres. That was theirs for their own use. The rest of the land was worked, used, and controlled by the government and its authority.
If you don't think this is serious, then don't bellyache down the road when the federal government condemns some of your land and buys it for an environmental use!
The addresses and electronic mail addresses are for your convenience. Write, fax or e-mail today.
The Honorable Max Baucus
Honorable Conrad Burns
Dennis Rehberg
U.S. Senate
U.S. Senate
U.S. House of Representatives
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
187 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
1609 Longworth House Office Bldg.
Washington DC 20510-0001
Washington, DC 20510-0001
Washington, DC 20515-0001
E-Mail: max@baucus.senate.gov
E-Mail: conrad_burns@burns.senate.gov
E-Mail:
Fax: (406) 657-6793
Fax: (406) 252-7768
Fax:
RETURN