HR 701, the Conservation And Reinvestment Act (CARA) is back again, returning like the poison ivy that won’t quit growing in your yard.
CARA hasn’t changed since last year’s defeat in Congress. CARA still diverts $45 Billion from the US Treasury over fifteen years, mainly to fund government purchase of privately owned land in violation of restrictions on government land ownership enumerated in Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution. CARA money goes into a Trust Fund and is given a higher priority than funding for national defense, education, medical research and all other programs. The House Resources Committee plans to send CARA to the House of Representatives for a vote some time in July. CARA passed the House by a 315-102 -vote last year but was stopped in the Senate.
The House Resources Committee’s hearing on June 20 shamefully stacked the witness deck in favor of CARA. Of nine witnesses invited to testify, only one witness, Patricia Callahan, president of the American Association of Small Property Owners, testified against CARA. She reminded the Committee that the US Constitution does not permit the federal government to operate a real estate business, which is what CARA would authorize and fund. Federal, state and local governments now own, and in many cases badly manage, about 42% of all land in the United States, and have not presented a convincing argument on why they need even more land.
CARA would divert $450 Million every year for 15 years from the US Treasury to pay for direct federal government purchase of private land, to drive rural landowners out of their homes, off their farms, and into the cities. CARA would provide another $450 Million every year which States would match with an additional $450 Million for state purchase of privately owned land. $33.5 Billion would go directly to States to pay for wildlife conservation, urban parks, and other uses. Except for $6.75 Billion for federal government land purchases, none of the CARA money would be under Congressional control and could be spent by the States on anything they want.
Louisiana and Alaska would receive by far the most funds under CARA, a total of $600 Million each year, to be spent on “impact assistance” for “onshore infrastructure,” which is political-speak meaning any sort of pork-barrel spending that Louisiana and Alaska want. Historic Preservation and Urban Parks sections of CARA hand over $250 million each year along with unlimited state and federal power tocondemn property, primarily in urban areas. $60 Million each year would go to extremist environmental organizations to train eco-police to trespass on your land looking for “endangered species” to stop your use of your land.
CARA is nothing more than government grand theft, using your tax dollars and the power of condemnation to take away your subdivision home, town house, farm, or rural land, and force you to move into a large city to fulfill the grand plan of The Wildlands Project and United Nations’ Agenda 21.
CARA probably will come up for a vote in the US House of Representatives during mid- to late-July. If CARA passes, no privately owned land will be safe from government bureaucracies and extremist environmental organizations who have a very long wish-list of places that they feel need “saving” from their owners.
CARA is a Socialist land-grab and a disaster in the making, and has no place in American government. CARA must be stopped again, now, and forever, if American citizens are to remain free to use and enjoy the land they own and live on.
Please contact your elected Representative and Senators in Congress and demand that CARA, HR-701, be scrapped immediately and permanently. Also demand that the House Resources Committee be forced to hold a field hearing on CARA where YOU live before CARA can be voted upon by the House of Representatives.