KBC cara deadline 073104

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on S 2590 on Tuesday, July 20th. That means you have 10 working days (two weeks) to fax your testimony to the committee by Tuesday, August 3rd.

Please download your Testimony Questionnaire off www.landrights.org and fax it to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee no later than Tuesday, August 3rd.

Look below for an unformatted version of the Testimony Questionnaire. All you have to do is mark AGREE, DISAGREE, OR NO OPINION. It is better if you write something yourself at least a paragraph or two in length but you don't have to. We would agree with all the statements, but you don't have to.

The new House bill is called the Get Outdoors Act (HR 4100) (we call it the get out of rural America Act or Get Out Act. It would provide over $3.1 billion per year, most of it available to buy land. All of this would be and off-budget, automatic guaranteed trust fund. It is the kiss of death for rural America.

The Senate version is the Americans Outdoors Act (S 2590) and would provide close to $2 billion per year in guaranteed automatic funds. If these two bills pass Congress, they will likely be reconciled to the larger version. So we need to refer to them as one bill.

-----1. Call both your Senators at (202) 224-3121 to ask that he or she send you a copy of the new bill. This is important even if you have a copy of the bill because it puts your Senators on notice that you are interested and concerned. Be sure to ask for their fax number.

The House and Senate versions of the NEW CARA bill are also available online at <http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d108query.html> For more information, go to< www.landrights.org > and click on the starburst. We call the new bills the New CARA or the Get Out Of Rural America Act.

-----2. Fill out and fax your Testimony Questionnaire by Tuesday, August
3rd. The fax numbers for the committee and its members are listed below. If you find the committee fax number is busy, send a second copy to your Senator with a request that he put it in the official record for you.

-----3. Follow up with a one page letter to your Senator sent by fax. If you mail it, it will be delayed from three to six weeks because of the Anthrax screening process. So if you want immediate results, use fax. If you don't have a fax, find a fax machine someplace.

Americans Outdoors Act - S 2590 - Testimony Questionnaire Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing July 20, 2004 United States Senate

Please review my responses to the following statements and consider this document to be my testimony regarding Americans Outdoors Act (S 2590) for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday, July 20th. I understand that I can attach additional comments and pages. Please consider a photocopy of this document as valid as the original.

I am deeply concerned about AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT. I consider this a rebirth of the old CARA, the Conservation and Reinvestment Act even though it does not now contain any provision for Federal land acquisition. It is my understanding that it is common knowledge in Washington, DC that Federal land acquisition will be added back in by amendment at a later date.

The Energy Committee appears to not be handling S 2590 in a straightforward and forthright manner. Everyone is fully aware that a Federal lands component will be added to S 2590. There seems to be a rush to judgment on an incomplete bill. I urge you to hold a hearing on the entire bill and not participate in what seems to be a "bait and switch" tactic. These kind of tactics do not place the Senate in a favorable light. Please make sure my testimony becomes part of the official record of this hearing.

Please circle your answer - You may write additional comments by each question or in the comment section on the back. Your personal comments make this document more valuable.

1) Condemnation will be allowed by AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT before it passes Congress. Even Federal condemnation using S 2590 funds can occur if authorized by legislation. I oppose condemnation (eminent domain) by BOTH Federal and state agencies.

2) No AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT funds, whether they be by the State, local or Federal governments, should be used to force any landowner, farmer, rancher, mining claim owner, homeowner or other rights holder to sell against his will.

3) Federal and state land acquisition buys private land and removes it from the tax rolls thereby increasing the tax burden of other local taxpayers and reducing important services such as schools, hospitals and libraries.

4) All lands with Endangered Species will be targets of land acquisition. With AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT funding, many more species will begin to look endangered. No land will be safe. Please don't use S
2590 funds to expand Federal control over my land.

5) It is likely that a small percentage of AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT will go to urban parks and ball fields for soccer moms. Please consider separate legislation giving them their fair share. Don't sell me out and threaten my community just to dole out some congressional pork to urban areas.

6) I believe S 2590 will eventually provide hundreds of millions of dollars each year for environmental groups and land trusts. I should not be forced to allow my tax dollars to support organizations that want to destroy my economic livelihood.

7) Hunters and sportsmen will gradually lose access to acquired lands as they are converted into off-limits areas.

8) The AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT supports efforts by Green groups to designate hundreds of new areas of private land as new Federal areas. They'll just say, "Let the Trust Fund pay for it."

9) The Federal land agencies are over $12 billion behind in deferred maintenance according to the appropriations committee. The Feds should take better care of what they own now before buying more.

10) The House version of S 2590 provides $3 billion per year, most of it available for land acquisition, that avoids having to compete in the congressional appropriations process each year. In its final form, I believe that S 2590 will be close to the present House version (HR 4100) that takes a higher priority for funding than cancer research, prescription drugs, healthcare, education or the military. This is wrong. Land Acquisition (S 2590) should not have a privileged status in the Federal budget process.

11) Some local communities adjacent to Federal areas think S 2590 funding will help tourism. Actually, the record of Federal land agencies when they get land acquisition money is to drive out inholders and landowners, reduce economic activity, destabilize the local real estate market and eliminate small business while locking up the land and locking out the people.

12) Many groups supporting the S 2590 expect to get huge amounts of pork money from it. This is the worst kind of pork barrel politics with the States and local governments asking for scarce Federal dollars.

13) Land acquisition has always been used as a weapon by the Federal, State and local land agencies to regulate and control private land. They don't need to zone it. They just threaten to own it.

14) Eventually the AMERICANS OUTDOORS ACT will cause hundreds of small communities in and around existing Federal, State and local park areas to be wiped off the map.

15) Large amounts of S 2590 will go to the Nature Conservancy and other land trusts to buy land and sell it to the government, often at a profit, undermining the economic ecosystem of local communities.

16) Additional UN Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites will be the result if S 2590 passes Congress. I don't want any loss of US Sovereignty.

To validate your comments please fill in completely (PRINT) and be sure to sign. Signature_________________________________ Name____________________________________________

Phone ____________________
Address_______________________________ Town______________________ State_____ Zip____________

Please do not fail to mail your testimony even if you receive it late. To bypass the four to six week delay caused by the anthrax screening process, please return it in the enclosed envilope. It will then be sent by Federal Express to Washington DC and hand delivered to your Senator.

Republicans: Pete Domenici (R-NM) - Chairman FAX: (202) 224-6163 -- Don Nickles (R-OK) FAX: (202) 224-6008 -- Larry Craig (R-ID) FAX: (202) 228-1067 -- Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) FAX: (202) 228-4609 -- Craig Thomas (R-WY) FAX: (202) 224-1724 -- Lamar Alexander (R-TN) FAX: (202) 228-3398 -- Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) FAX: (202) 224-5301 -- James Talent (R-MO) FAX: (202) 228-1518 -- Conrad Burns (R-MT) FAX: (202) 224-8594 -- Gordon Smith (R-OR) FAX: (202) 228-3997 -- Jim Bunning (R-KY) FAX: (202) 228-1373 -- Jon Kyl (R-AZ) FAX: (202) 224-2207

Democrats: Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) FAX: (202) 224-2852 -- Daniel Akaka (D-HI) FAX: (202) 224-2126 Byron Dorgan (D-ND) FAX: (202) 224-1193 -- Bob Graham (D-FL) FAX: (202) 224-3808 Ron Wyden (D-OR) FAX: (202) 228-2717 -- Tim Johnson (D-SD) FAX: (202) 228-5765 Mary Landrieu (D-LA) FAX: (202) 224-9735 -- Evan Bayh (D-IN) FAX: (202) 228-1377 Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) FAX: (202) 228-3954 -- Charles Schumer (D-NY) FAX: (202) 228-3027 Maria Cantwell (D-WA) FAX: (202) 228-0514

Here are additional reasons why the Americans Outdoors Act (S 2590) and the Get Out Act (HR 4100) must be defeated:

-----Government agents and appraisers get well OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR TO CONDEMN PRIVATE PROPERTY. No one is safe. Eminent Domain will spread;

-----Extremists gain $60 million dollars per year to train an ARMY of investigators who will trespass on your land to LOCATE AND POLICE E-NDANGERED SPECIES;

-----Animal rights activists are clamoring for money to reintroduce wolves that kill livestock and run cattle ranchers, farmers, inholders and landowners off their land;

-----"Non-government organizations" (NGOs) win funding to draw up UNITED NATIONS Biosphere Reserves, override national sovereignty and eliminate private property rights;

Please don't fail to fax your Testimony Questionnaire in on time. If you hit the bill hard now, you'll save yourself a lot of work later.