Return of the Land Grab
By Tom DeWeese

For the past five years Congress has been trying to push through a bill that would lock away millions of acres of private lands across the nation. Property rights advocates have fought a courageous and thus far semi-successful battle to stop those efforts. But the politicians keep pushing.

In 1999 the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA) was first introduced. Opposition to the bill grew quickly as the details of the program became known. The original CARA bill would have established a permanent $1.4 billion annual trust fund that would guarantee huge amounts of money for private land acquisition and condemnation of private property in the name of protecting the environment.

Three times Rep. Don Young and his allies, Rep. Billy Tauzan (R-La) and Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK), tried to push, bully or sneak CARA through their respective houses of Congress. By the end of 1999, Young and Murkowski failed to even get their own committees to support the bill. Almost half of the Republicans on the House Resources Committee (which Young chaired) refused support.

That didn't stop the politicians. By March 2000, in the new 107th Congress, Young reintroduced CARA. The spending and pork in the bill had soared to $3 billion annually or ($45 billion over it's proposed 15 year life) in an attempt to attract other House members. Republican House leadership, uneasy with such a huge spending bill, vowed not to support CARA unless a majority of Republicans co-sponsored it. Young got his majority in May 2000 and CARA finally passed the House.

As the fight shifted to the Senate, even the Republican Party of Alaska announced its opposition to the bill. Month by month property rights activists fought in the trenches of every possible hearing, secret meeting or arm-twisting session in the Senate to stop the bill from passing that body where it was finally stopped a second time.

A last minute compromise over a lesser bill, dubbed "CARA Lite", was passed instead. While "CARA Lite" appropriated $12 billion over six years for land grabs, it did not contain the most dangerous part of CARA, the permanent trust fund. In 2001 it again failed.

In a dramatic, midnight play, just hours before Congress adjourned for the Christmas holiday, Young again managed a behind closed doors compromise to pass the American Wildlife Enhancement Act. Named "Son of CARA" by opponents, the bill provided another $600 million in federal funds to put more private property under federal control. But again, the "Son of CARA" did not have the permanent trust fund provision.

Its supporters are still determined to get that trust fund. So now they are back with yet another version of CARA. Once again Young has teamed up with California Democrat George Miller to introduce the Get Outdoors Act (HR4100). Apparently they felt this act was getting old, so they changed the name.

They also changed their reasons as to why America needs to lock away millions of acres of its landscape. They know that Americans are now less interested in the environment and are more concerned with health care; specifically OBESITY! So they now call land-grabbing getting outdoors. As Chuck Cushman of the American Land Rights Association points out, "they could buy 15 million really good treadmills for that kind of money and really help folks fighting obesity." Even better, as Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the House Resources Committee said, "It would cost the American taxpayer less to get a membership at Gold's Gym and actually work out than acquire millions of acres of land in the name of health."

Groups, which never cared a whit about obesity before, are now backing the bill. They include The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, the Izaak Walton League of America, the National Parks and Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and several others who have been the leaders in pushing for federal land grabs. Now suddenly they are backing a bill about overcoming obesity.

If passed they finally will get their permanent trust fund. Only this time, instead of a measly $45 billion, the ante is increased to $58 billion over 18 years. Establishing the trust fund would mean setting up a permanent entitlement like Social Security. That means it would be funded automatically no matter what happens to the economy. It wouldn't be affected by tax cutting policies. It couldn't be reduced. It would sit outside the federal budget like a big fat blob. Funding the Get Outdoors Act would take precedence over military spending or medical care.

The GO Act claims that funding for the trust fund would come from offshore drilling fees that the government collects from private companies. Supporters claim that the money is already being collected and so the $45 billion would not result in new taxes for Americans. That kind of accounting is typical of someone who has been on Capitol Hill way too long. True, the money is already being collected – and it's already being spent to support other programs – which aren't going to go away just because they have other ideas for the money. To keep funding those programs government will have to raise taxes.

The Get Outdoors Act will allow environmental groups to actively look for endangered species on private land. It provides $60 million a year to train an army of investigators who will trespass on private land to locate and police endangered species. Once found, the land will become unusable by the private owners, effectively locking it away from private use.

The Get Outdoors act is a disaster for private property owners and to the American economy. Young argues that there are protections for private property. It's a tired old claim. The "willing sellers provisions are always put into such land grabs and everybody in Congress sits back satisfied that all is well. Only they aren't there to see the coercion that takes place to produce a "willing seller." It's a little like watching a hot dog being made. You don't want to know.

The Get Outdoors Act is CARA. It is a massive land grab. It is a massive burden to tax payers. it is a pretense of caring about obesity and public health when it is a land grab. Issues come and issues go, but politicians with hair-brained ideas seem to plague us forever.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and president of the American Policy Center. The Center maintains a website at www.americanpolicy.org.