March 1, 2012
From The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Contact Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
House Passes Anti-Kelo
Eminent Domain Bill
A copy of the bill, H.R. 1443,
is available here.
NJTODAY.NET by Anthony F. Della Pelle
/ New Jersey
Condemnation Law
http://njtoday.net/2012/03/01/house-passes-anti-kelo-eminent-domain-bill/
The United
States House of Representatives this week
passed bipartisan legislation that proposes to withhold for two years all
federal development funding to states or local governments that take private
property for economic development. The bill, labeled the Private Property
Rights Protection Act (H.R. 1443), also bars the federal government from using
eminent domain for economic development purposes and gives private property
owners the right to take legal action if provisions of the legislation are
violated.
The legislation was sponsored by an unusual combination of
lawmakers –Wisconsin Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner and California Democratic
Congresswoman Maxine Waters. It received nearly unanimous support, with
only Michigan
Democrat John Conyers voicing opposition. Congresswoman Waters stated
that her support for the bill comes in part from the idea that poor people and
minorities stand the most to lose from the use of eminent domain for economic
redevelopment, where powerful developers or other politically-connected people
or companies may prosper at the expense of those who are poor or week.
This is the latest effort by federal legislators to curb the
use of eminent domain for economic development, and to minimize abuses of the
government’s condemnation power. A similar bill was passed by the House
in late 2005, months after the controversial ruling by the U.S. Supreme
Court in City of New London v. Kelo,
but did not gain approval in the Senate.
The current bill will now move on to the Senate for
consideration. We’ll be watching to see if this version gets any further
than its predecessor.
Originally published by New Jersey Condemnation Law;
republished with permission
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