American Policy Center » 2005 » March
- URGENT: Invasive Species Legislation in Highway Bill!
- URGENT: National Heritage Areas Hearing TUESDAY, MARCH 15!
- President Bush: Remove U.S. Signature from UN Court Treaty!
- The Endangered Species Act: Thirty years of Endangering People and Animals is Enough
- The Endangered Species Act: Thirty years of Endangering People and Animals is Enough
- A Declaration of War
- National Heritage Areas Legislation Attacked
- Peyton Knight's Testimony on National Heritage Areas Submitted to the US Senate Subcommittee on National Parks
- How to Stop the Flood of Illegal Aliens
| Action Alert! Action Alert!
APC is now offering you a quick and easy way to multiply your efforts and help win more battles! Simply click here: |
March 30, 2005
Action Alert! Action Alert! Action Alert!
If you have “non-native” weeds, grass, trees, or shrubs on your property (and everyone does) you’re in trouble.
Under “invasive species” provisions currently sitting in the Senate’s version of the transportation bill, your property could quickly become the target of radical environmentalists and federal bureaucrats. The bill’s name is the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act” or SAFETEA 2005 (*please note* that it does not yet have a bill number).
It is vitally important that you call both of your Senators this week, and next week, and tell them to DEMAND that any invasive species provisions be stripped from the SAFETEA bill. SAFETEA could come up for a vote before the full Senate at ANY TIME!
**Call the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and simply ask for your Senators by name.**
Currently, the SAFETEA act contains provisions to “minimize invasive species.” This is the foot in the door to federal control of ALL so-called “invasive species” — something that the greens openly covet.
Under the Senate version of SAFETEA, the federal government will dictate to the states what types of grasses and plants are allowed to be planted next to roads. This has nothing to do with science or the environment. This is about LAND CONTROL and MONEY FOR RADICAL GREEN GROUPS.
**Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them: NO INVASIVE SPECIES PROVISIONS in the transportation bill!**
Imagine the Endangered Species Act on steroids. Now multiply its devastating effect on property rights one-hundred fold. That should give you a pretty good idea of what “invasive species” legislation will mean for property owners in every state, county, and city in this nation.
“Invasive species” is the radical greens’ key to controlling every square inch of land in the United States. And SAFETEA is the just the beginning.
This nightmare all began when Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 13112 in 1999, creating an “Invasive Species Council” to monitor and control “alien species.” What are alien species? According to Clinton’s Order, “alien species means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, any species, including seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating that species, that is not native to that ecosystem.”
Most agricultural crops and animal species clearly fall within the definition of “alien.” Domesticated pets, many houseplants, and Kentucky bluegrass used in most lawns and golf courses are already defined as alien species. Indeed, this is all the greens and their allies in the federal government need to control all land in the U.S.
Think the invasive species monster can’t get any worse? It already has. In 2001, the Invasive Species Council issued a management plan that states: “Council member agencies will work with the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) and other relevant bodies to expand opportunities to share information, technologies, and technical capacity on the control and management of invasive species with other countries, promoting environmentally sound control and management practices.”
And just what is the Global Invasive Species Programme? A quick trip to the GISP website reveals it is:
- The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
- The United Nations Environmental, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- The Convention on Biological Diversity
- The Nature Conservancy
- The International Union for the Protection of Nature
- DIVERSITAS: An International Programme of Biodiversity Science (another UNESCO project)
Invasive species legislation opens the door to federal and international control over private property in the United States. And that’s why greens in the Senate are trying to sneak it into the federal transportation bill — without ANY proper debate.
We are running out of time. Contact your Senators TODAY, TOMORROW, AND NEXT WEEK.
The House version of the transportation bill has already passed and thankfully does NOT include any invasive species language. But the Senate version (SAFETEA 2005) DOES! Once again, the House is on the right track and the Senate is out in left field.
ACT NOW!
**Action to Take**
Call both of your Senators and tell them to DEMAND that any and all “invasive species” provisions are REMOVED from the Senate transportation bill (SAFETEA). Call the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senators by name.
***PLEASE SEND THIS URGENT ALERT TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE***
*American Policy Center to Testify*
Action Alert! Action Alert!
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The National Heritage Areas scourge is BACK!
The Senate subcommittee on National Parks needs to hear from you. Please read the “Action to Take” below and make the necessary phone calls. The subcommittee must hear from you before Tuesday.
Next Tuesday, the subcommittee will hold a hearing to create three new National Heritage Areas spanning five states, and to convert an existing Heritage Area into an official unit of the National Park System. The four bills are as follows:
- S.175: the “Bleeding Kansas and Enduring Struggle for Freedom National Heritage Area” (Kansas)
- S. 322: the “Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership” (Vermont and New York)
- S. 429: the “Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area” (Connecticut and Massachusetts)
- S. 323: a bill to designate the “French Colonial Heritage Area” in Missouri as a unit of the National Park System
WE MUST MAKE A STAND HERE. DO NOT HOLD BACK ANYTHING.
Congress is gearing up to not only pass these Heritage Area bills — but to also create a MASSIVE new Heritage Area Program this year. A Program that would virtually ensure that every square inch of the United States could fall under Heritage Area boundaries. This means every square inch of the U.S. could be subject to the iron-fisted regulatory rule of the National Park Service and their Green allies. We must not let this happen!
THE SENATE PARKS SUBCOMMITTEE MUST HEAR FROM YOU. PHONE NUMBERS ARE LISTED BELOW.
IMPORTANT: Peyton Knight, executive director of the American Policy Center (APC), will be testifying before the subcommittee next Tuesday. Your phone calls to members of the subcommittee will help strengthen the impact of APC’s testimony.
AGAIN: National Heritage Areas are a federal land use scheme. Federal money (pork) is administered through the National Park Service to anti-property rights groups who are directed to preserve just about anything and everything within the Heritage Area. In other words, the Park Service “partners” with local greens to take away YOUR property rights. To read more about the dangers of National Heritage Areas, go to: http://www.americanpolicy.org/prop/senatetestimony.htm.
WE MUST ACT NOW!
**Action to Take**
1. Call National Parks Subcommittee Chairman Craig Thomas (R-WY) and tell him to oppose the creation of ANY new National Heritage Areas. Tell him to vote NO on the four Heritage Area bills listed above. Explain to him that Heritage Areas are unconstitutional expansions of government power that endanger the right of local communities to make their own land use decisions. Heritage Areas are federal land and power grabs! Call Senator Thomas now and ask to speak to the staff person in charge of Heritage Areas: (202) 224-6441.
2. Call the following members of the National Parks Subcommittee and tell them to vote NO on the four Heritage Area bills listed above.
Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 202.224.4944
George Allen (R-VA) 202.224.4024
Richard Burr (R-NC) 202.224.3154
Mel Martinez (R-FL) 202.224.3041
Gordon Smith (R-OR) 202.224.3753
Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) 202.224.6361
Ron Wyden (D-OR) 202.224.5244
Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA) 202.224.5824
Jon Corzine (D-NJ) 202.224.4744
Ken Salazar (D-CO) 202.224.5852
3. Call both of your Senators and tell them to oppose the creation of ANY new Heritage Areas. Senate Switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Simply ask for your Senator by name.
***PLEASE SEND THIS URGENT ALERT TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE***
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As you know, one of the last things President Clinton did before leaving the White House was to sign the United Nations’ International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty. Now, power-hungry UN officials are claiming that, once ratified, the ICC will have jurisdiction over U.S. citizens because of Clinton’s signature. The UN claims that the ICC will become international law once 60 countries individually ratify the treaty. Currently, they have 56 ratifications!
THE UN REPORTS THAT THE 60TH RATIFICATION WILL OCCUR ON APRIL 11TH—NEXT WEEK!!! They are planning a huge ceremony to celebrate the birth of their court.
The Bush Administration has expressed that the US will not take part in such a court. Pierre Prosper, US ambassador for war crimes, has stated the “the US is not and will not be part of the ICC.”
But time is running out!
President Bush must rescind the United States’ signature from the ICC treaty. He must do so before April 11th!
Without US participation, the UN court will be “dead on arrival.” We must make sure that happens!
Please call and fax President Bush and urge him to take immediate action to remove the US from the ICC!
White House: Phone (202) 456-1414; Fax: (202) 456-2461
Also, please click here 
to send this urgent Action Alert to up to ten of your friends. It is vital that we spread this to as many people as possible!
***PLEASE SEND TO AT LEAST FIVE MORE PEOPLE***
March 21, 2005
By Peyton Knight
Animals and humans have suffered the menace of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for three long decades. During this span, over 1,300 species have been listed as threatened or endangered under the Act’s guidelines. According the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the ESA is responsible for recovering a mere ten of them.
That amounts to a pitiful recovery rate of less than one percent. When you take into account credible studies that show these ten recoveries had little or nothing to do with the ESA, the “success” rate plummets to zero.
Saving zero of over 1,300 species is hard work and sacrifice under the Endangered Species Act. After all, you don’t achieve a zero percent success rate without breaking a few eggs. When the Northern Spotted Owl was listed under the ESA in 1990, tens of thousands of Americans in the Pacific Northwest lost their jobs and their livelihoods. Billions of dollars were sapped from the regional economy. Private property was taken from landowners. Such is the toil and hardship associated with saving an owl that, as it turns out, isn’t endangered and never needed saving.
Crucial military preparation and training operations have fallen victim to the ESA’s relentless pursuit of imperfection. The Pentagon regards Camp Pendleton in Southern California as one of the best places to train U.S. marines due to its unique terrain and coastline. In fact, Camp Pendleton is the only amphibious training base on the West Coast. Alas, it is also home to the California gnatcatcher, the San Diego fairy shrimp, the tidewater goby, and more than a dozen other species listed as “endangered” or “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. As such, our men and women in uniform must tread lightly, or not at all, in certain areas that used to be their training ground—lest they find themselves subject to penalties and fines.
Dodging bullets may prove easier than avoiding fairy shrimp “vernal pools,” or “puddles of water” to the layman. An inadequately trained military is a small price to pay when you’ve got a zero-for-1,300 streak on the line. Even during a time of war.
The Endangered Species Act does not discriminate. Just ask the family and friends of the four firefighters who were killed in 2001. Federal bureaucrats fiddled while the inferno around them burned. These four heroes were fighting the infamous Thirty Mile Fire in Washington’s Okanogan National Forest when the blaze bore down on them and encroached on their emergency fire shelters. Their only salvation was the nearby Chewuch River, which could supply water to helicopters for a flame-dousing airdrop. Oh, if it were only that easy.
According to the Endangered Species Act, the Chewuch was home to a several endangered fish and, therefore, ladling water from the river might, could, possibly imperil a few of the little buggers. While paper pushers back East fretted over how to satisfy the ESA’s requirements, these four brave men and women were snuffed out by the deadly fire. The good news is there are plenty of humans to go around. Fish, on the other hand, well, they’re abundant too. But who are we to question the supremacy of the Endangered Species Act?
Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) has stated: “It is no secret the ESA has been used by extremists to restrict, seize, and devalue private property rights, as well as halt important government projects. In fact, this is what most ‘green’ obstructionist groups relish most about the Act.”
Whatever intentions were behind the ESA when it was conceived in 1973 are of little consequence. Intended results mean nothing when compared to actual results. The ESA exists solely as a land-use and power tool, whereby radical environmentalists and their allies in government can take property and force their whims on the public. As Rep. Pombo points out, “The ESA has become the preeminent law of the land; in its implementation, it takes precedent over all else.”
Included in that “all else” is common sense. The Endangered Species Act punishes property owners for fostering an environment that is suitable for species habitation. You read that right. The ESA is so backwards that it creates a perverse incentive for landowners to actually rid their property of species and habitat for fear of government confiscation of their land or property rights.
“The incentives are wrong here,” notes biologist and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Director Sam Hamilton. “If a rare metal is on my property the value of my land goes up. But if a rare bird is on my property the value of my property goes down.”
Stolen property, lost jobs, shattered livelihoods, broken dreams, billions of dollars, and lost lives. This is a pretty steep price for a law that has failed to save species. Can’t America do better? Isn’t it time to repeal the Endangered Species Act and start over?
Peyton Knight is executive director of the American Policy Center. The Center, a grassroots activist think tank, maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org.
March 21, 2005
By Peyton Knight
Animals and humans have suffered the menace of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for three long decades. During this span, over 1,300 species have been listed as threatened or endangered under the Act’s guidelines. According the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the ESA is responsible for recovering a mere ten of them.
That amounts to a pitiful recovery rate of less than one percent. When you take into account credible studies that show these ten recoveries had little or nothing to do with the ESA, the “success” rate plummets to zero.
Saving zero of over 1,300 species is hard work and sacrifice under the Endangered Species Act. After all, you don’t achieve a zero percent success rate without breaking a few eggs. When the Northern Spotted Owl was listed under the ESA in 1990, tens of thousands of Americans in the Pacific Northwest lost their jobs and their livelihoods. Billions of dollars were sapped from the regional economy. Private property was taken from landowners. Such is the toil and hardship associated with saving an owl that, as it turns out, isn’t endangered and never needed saving.
Crucial military preparation and training operations have fallen victim to the ESA’s relentless pursuit of imperfection. The Pentagon regards Camp Pendleton in Southern California as one of the best places to train U.S. marines due to its unique terrain and coastline. In fact, Camp Pendleton is the only amphibious training base on the West Coast. Alas, it is also home to the California gnatcatcher, the San Diego fairy shrimp, the tidewater goby, and more than a dozen other species listed as “endangered” or “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. As such, our men and women in uniform must tread lightly, or not at all, in certain areas that used to be their training ground—lest they find themselves subject to penalties and fines.
Dodging bullets may prove easier than avoiding fairy shrimp “vernal pools,” or “puddles of water” to the layman. An inadequately trained military is a small price to pay when you’ve got a zero-for-1,300 streak on the line. Even during a time of war.
The Endangered Species Act does not discriminate. Just ask the family and friends of the four firefighters who were killed in 2001. Federal bureaucrats fiddled while the inferno around them burned. These four heroes were fighting the infamous Thirty Mile Fire in Washington’s Okanogan National Forest when the blaze bore down on them and encroached on their emergency fire shelters. Their only salvation was the nearby Chewuch River, which could supply water to helicopters for a flame-dousing airdrop. Oh, if it were only that easy.
According to the Endangered Species Act, the Chewuch was home to a several endangered fish and, therefore, ladling water from the river might, could, possibly imperil a few of the little buggers. While paper pushers back East fretted over how to satisfy the ESA’s requirements, these four brave men and women were snuffed out by the deadly fire. The good news is there are plenty of humans to go around. Fish, on the other hand, well, they’re abundant too. But who are we to question the supremacy of the Endangered Species Act?
Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) has stated: “It is no secret the ESA has been used by extremists to restrict, seize, and devalue private property rights, as well as halt important government projects. In fact, this is what most ‘green’ obstructionist groups relish most about the Act.”
Whatever intentions were behind the ESA when it was conceived in 1973 are of little consequence. Intended results mean nothing when compared to actual results. The ESA exists solely as a land-use and power tool, whereby radical environmentalists and their allies in government can take property and force their whims on the public. As Rep. Pombo points out, “The ESA has become the preeminent law of the land; in its implementation, it takes precedent over all else.”
Included in that “all else” is common sense. The Endangered Species Act punishes property owners for fostering an environment that is suitable for species habitation. You read that right. The ESA is so backwards that it creates a perverse incentive for landowners to actually rid their property of species and habitat for fear of government confiscation of their land or property rights.
“The incentives are wrong here,” notes biologist and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Director Sam Hamilton. “If a rare metal is on my property the value of my land goes up. But if a rare bird is on my property the value of my property goes down.”
Stolen property, lost jobs, shattered livelihoods, broken dreams, billions of dollars, and lost lives. This is a pretty steep price for a law that has failed to save species. Can’t America do better? Isn’t it time to repeal the Endangered Species Act and start over?
Peyton Knight is executive director of the American Policy Center. The Center, a grassroots activist think tank, maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org.
March 15, 2005
A front-lines communiqué
From Tom DeWeese
I have been an activist for the cause of freedom for 37 years. I have always worked to preserve and defend the ideals of our Founding Fathers, including individual liberty, limited government, and free markets. I have worked both inside and outside of political parties and as an activist in the grassroots. I have suffered defeat and celebrated a few victories. Throughout the battles I have always been the optimist, urging on battle-weary troops, believing that in the end the fight for right will win.
However, in November of last year, I watched with horror while the lame duck session of the 108th Congress passed one assault on liberty after another; bills that we had fought to derail during the regular session.
First, Congress passed a 3,000-page bill, which most Representatives didn’t even read, to implement a national identification card and strengthen the already horrendous Patriot Act. Then Congress passed a mandatory and universal mental health-screening bill that will force our children to take mind-altering psychotropic drugs.
In the heat of the session, we again stopped the “new civics” bill that would indoctrinate our children to accept globalism rather than American ideals. However after we won that fight for the second time, Congress simply changed the name of the bill and passed it anyway. All of these were bills Congress didn’t have the guts to pass until they were safely reelected and covered by the dark of night.
Of course, the lame duck session was only the icing on the cake. We’ve all watched over the past several years as one liberty after another has disappeared. Our once free nation, where individuals were protected as they made their own decisions about how to live life, now finds almost every aspect of American life controlled by government. We have become a nation ruled by food police, smoking police, government medical care, energy czars, education czars, immigration czars, and intelligence czars. Soon, in the name of “election reform,” our system of selecting our local representatives may be controlled by a federal election czar.
We aren’t allowed to close our borders because that wouldn’t be fair to people who want to ignore our laws. We are told that English is just one language spoken in this country. Our religion is no longer permitted on public lands that our tax dollars pay for. Now we are to have a National ID card that we must show to open a bank account, get on a plane, or buy a gun. Government at all levels no longer serves to protect our liberties and property. Rather, government’s only purpose is to rule, regulate, restrict, license, tax, assess, confiscate, and redistribute our possessions to some unnamed stakeholder.
No longer can our nation call itself the beacon of freedom in the world. In fact, the Heritage Foundation has just released its 2005 Index of Economic Freedom, and for the very first time, the United States isn’t even in the top ten free nations. We are tied with Switzerland for 12th place. Clearly, American liberty is dying.
Through it all I have fought, trying to stem the tide and find a way to win. But during the lame duck session, as the outrageous votes came, one after another, I must tell you, something snapped in me. An anger rose in my gut that I simply could not ignore. It became all too clear to me how badly we are outgunned, out-organized, and out-financed by the enemies of freedom.
The other side has massive foundations like Ford, Rockefeller and Pew (to name a very few) that have literally billions of dollars to pour into the fight. Meanwhile, we are a rag tag band of “mom and pop” groups whose members cash their paychecks on Friday night, and head for Kinkos to make copies of materials to hand out in meetings or on street corners on Saturday.
We try to balance the news media’s bias with letters to the editor and we hope our footwork and sweat in campaigns will counter the millions of dollars dumped into elected officials’ pockets. Like Washington’s soldiers at Valley Forge, we are barefoot, poorly armed, and freezing in the cold, facing certain extinction. Clearly, such a situation will never lead to a victory for freedom unless, like Washington, we find a new way to fight. The fact is, it doesn’t have to be this way.
You see, our movement is actually a vast outreach of dedicated, smart, hardworking activists. We are property rights activists; Second Amendment defenders; parentally-controlled-education proponents; free enterprise advocates; tax opponents; family autonomy champions; personal privacy protectors; guardians of American independence and sovereignty; conservatives; libertarians and Christians. There are millions of us, but we are all scattered to the four winds. We need a place to gather together; to share information; to issue action alerts on a massive scale; to carry the freedom message; to bring all of these diverse issues together; and above all, to raise money for the cause. But how? It should be obvious to all of us by now that no rich foundations or big money men are coming to help us. So we have to do it ourselves.
That’s why I have spent the past several months creating a very simple plan; one that will do all of the above, especially raising funds, without anyone in the movement having to spend any more time, or spend any more money than they already do in their everyday lives.
My goal is to bring more than one million freedom fighters together; one million freedom fighters taking action when the alerts are issued; one million freedom fighters sharing information and coming together into one mighty fist. Above all, my plan can put more than $24 million a year directly into the Freedom movement. Here’s how.
I have created a full service Internet provider strictly for the freedom movement. It’s called Freedom21.com. You will get an e-mail address that carries the freedom message every time you correspond on the Internet, (your name @ Freedom21.com). You will get news with your point of view. No longer will you have to suffer through biased news supplied by CNN or the big three networks. Freedom21.com will feature commentaries from leading advocates of freedom. Imagine being able to tell the entire freedom movement of special meetings, conferences, or important activities in local communities through a “Freedom Message Board” and action alerts.
Above all, for the first time, freedom’s activists won’t be putting their Internet access subscription money into the pockets of those who scorn their beliefs and fund their opponents, like Ted Turner and AOL, or Bill Gates at Microsoft. Even more important, Freedom 21.com will donate $2 of every subscription fee, every month, to the freedom organization of the subscriber’s choice. That means your money will be working for your cause even while you are just living your everyday life.
One million subscribers will provide more than $24 million every year to our movement. That money will help pay for campaign training schools; seed money for new organizations; lawsuits; media campaigns; legislative battles; research; all of the tools we need to win the battle for freedom.
A subscription to Freedom21.com is only $15.99 per month for full dial-up service, including a network of thousands of local phone numbers and 24 hour per day technical service. Users of DSL, cable, or those who just want to continue with their current internet provider may pay a simple membership fee of $6.99 per month and still get the Freedom21.com e-mail address, action alerts, commentaries, message board, and of course, $2 of the membership fee will certainly go to the freedom group of their choice.
Keep in mind, no other Internet provider puts money directly into the pockets of groups who support the mission of freedom. Local and national groups, radio talk shows, and Internet news sites are all welcome to become participating partners and receive the $2 from their own members, listeners, and readers who subscribe to Freedom21.com.
Those who carry a passion for the ideals of liberty as described in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution will feel at home on Freedom21.com.
I’m taking this action because I’m tired of being a mere speck that powerful forces can squash at will. I live a good life. I get to travel and speak out on issues I passionately believe in. It’s flattering to speak to friendly audiences, or have folks shake my hand, or praise my work. But it’s not enough. I want to win!
I believe Freedom21.com gives us an opportunity to begin to turn the fight around. New ideas for the movement will spring up, funded by the seeds sown by Freedom21.com. But this is the starting place. This is our gathering place on the Internet. This is our chance to declare a new kind of war against those who threaten our liberties. Finally, we can have the money and the fist we’ve always needed.
To make it all a reality I need one million freedom fighters to join Freedom21.com. Will you join me now and be one of the first to switch to the new fight for freedom? Join my efforts at Freedom21.com and let’s start winning.
Washington, DC (March 15, 2005) – In a hearing today before the U.S. Senate National Parks Subcommittee, Peyton Knight, executive director of the American Policy Center charged that, “National Heritage Areas are nothing more than property targeted by environmentalists and the National Park Service for regulation and land acquisition,”
“At present, the Park Service is running a multibillion-dollar deferred maintenance backlog,” said Knight. “It can’t handle its current responsibility. How on Earth does it make sense to give it more?” Knight warned that “extreme fiscal irresponsibility” isn’t the only problem with National Heritage Areas, telling the committee that they “embody a more sinister characteristic” as well.
“Heritage Areas are federal land use mandates foisted upon local communities,” Knight said. “Heritage Areas have boundaries, and those boundaries have consequences for property owners unfortunate enough to reside within them.”
Knight explained that, when an area becomes a National Heritage Area, the Park Service partners with an environmental special interest group to “restore, preserve, and manage anything and everything that is naturally, culturally, historically, and recreationally significant to the Heritage Area.” That is exactly what legislation for Heritage Areas states. “This sweeping mandate ensures that every square inch of a Heritage Area is a prime target for regulation or acquisition — private property included.”
Responding to proponents’ claims that Heritage Areas are only temporary grants, Knight pointed out that few Heritage Areas, if any, have ever met their funding sunsets. “In fact,” he said, “there is a bill before this very Congress (H.R. 888) that would extend the life of nine existing Heritage Areas until the year 2027, and double their funding.”
“Heritage Areas are permanent units of the National Park Service from their moment of inception,” said Knight, “They are the 40-year-old child still living in mommy and daddy’s basement.”
Under consideration by the subcommittee are four pieces of legislation: S. 175, the “Bleeding Kansas and Enduring Struggle for Freedom National Heritage Area” in Kansas; S.322, the “Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership,” covering parts of Vermont and New York; S.429, the “Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area,” covering parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts; and S. 323, a bill to designate the “French Colonial Heritage Area” in Missouri as a unit of the National Park System.
“Zoning and land use policies are local decisions to be made by locally elected officials who are directly accountable to the citizens they represent,” Knight told the subcommittee. “National Heritage Areas corrupt this inherently local procedure by adding federal dollars, federal oversight, and federal mandates to the mix.”
Knight concluded, “The real beneficiaries of National Heritage Areas are conservation groups, preservation societies, land trusts, and the National Park Service. Essentially, organizations that are in constant pursuit of federal dollars, land acquisition, and restrictions on property rights.”
Statement of
J. Peyton Knight
Executive Director of the American Policy Center
Concerning
S. 175: The Bleeding Kansas National Heritage Area Act
S. 322: The Champlain Valley National Heritage
Partnership Act
S. 429: The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage
Area Act
S. 323: French Colonial Heritage National Historic Site
Study Act
Read before the
Subcommittee on National Parks
of the
United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
March 15, 2005
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Peyton Knight. I am executive director of the American Policy Center in Warrenton, Virginia. The Center is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the principles of private property rights, free markets, and limited government. In addition, I am the Washington, D.C. representative for the American Land Rights Association (ALRA). ALRA promotes the protection of property rights and the wise use of our nation’s resources. I have the distinct pleasure of being the only witness appearing today who is not asking you for any money.
And that is important, because at last check, the federal debt is approaching eight trillion dollars. Extreme fiscal irresponsibility aside, National Heritage Areas (NHAs) embody a more sinister characteristic. Though billed by those who hope to cash-in at the federal trough as nothing more than innocuous designations bestowed upon local communities for the purposes of national recognition and tourism-seed money, Heritage Areas are actually federal land use mandates foisted upon local communities. Quite simply: Heritage Areas have boundaries, and those boundaries have consequences for property owners unfortunate enough to reside within them.
Funding and technical assistance for NHAs is administered through the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency with a long history of hostility toward private landowners. The recipient of these funds and NPS direction is a management entity, which typically consists of strictly ideological special interest groups and local government officials. This public/private “partnership” then imposes its narrow vision of land use planning on unsuspecting landowners within a Heritage Area’s boundaries. The result is a top-down, federal approach to zoning that is not responsive to the local citizenry.
Incredibly, proponents argue that National Heritage Areas do not influence local zoning or land use planning. Yet by definition this is precisely what they do. In each of the three Heritage Area bills before us today (S. 175, S. 322, and S.429), the management entity is specifically directed to restore, preserve, and manage anything and everything that is naturally, culturally, historically, and recreationally significant to the Heritage Area. This sweeping mandate ensures that virtually every square inch of land within the boundaries is subject to the scrutiny of Park Service bureaucrats and their managing partners.
The late Representative Gerald Solomon (R-NY) strongly warned his colleagues against the Heritage Area scheme. In a letter dated September 19, 1994, Soloman wrote:
I urge you to defend property rights and strongly oppose the American Heritage Area Participation Program … The environmentalists advocating this bill have FEDERAL LAND USE CONTROL as their primary objective.
The bill wastes tax dollars that could be more appropriately spent on maintaining our national parks … Property rights defenders have legitimate concerns about the provision in the bill requiring localities to obtain approval by the Secretary of Interior for land use plans…
WHY SPEND $35 MILLION ON NON-FEDERAL HERITAGE AREAS WHEN OUR NATIONAL PARKS DESPERATELY NEED FUNDS FOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR?
Again, I ask you to defend property rights and oppose this bill.
(The emphasis is Rep. Soloman’s—not mine.)
Little has changed in the ten years since Congressman Solomon warned his colleagues about the imprudence and danger of National Heritage Areas. The advocates of this program still have federal land use control as their primary objective. Heritage Areas still waste tax dollars that would be better spent on a Park Service maintenance backlog that now numbers in the billions of dollars. And the Secretary of Interior still has the ultimate say over the management and land use plans of each Heritage Area, these present bills included. Clearly, National Heritage Areas are nothing less than federal land use policy.
Also on September 19, 1994, Rep. Bob Smith (R-OR) penned a letter to fellow Congressman Richard Pombo, warning him about the inherent dangers of National Heritage Areas:
Dear Richard,
On Tuesday, the House will consider legislation that I consider to be the most significant threat to private property rights I have seen during my twelve years in Congress.
This legislation … will threaten private property by authorizing a broad new program of federal land use controls, extending from coast to coast. There are nearly 100 Heritage Areas currently under consideration and it’s likely that your constituents will be impacted by these incredible restrictions on private property.
This program is based on the existing Columbia Gorge Scenic Area in Oregon and Washington. The management plan for the Gorge regulates nearly every detail of private property use, including the color landowners can paint their homes and the species of trees they can plant in their own yard. Your constituents, like mine, will be outraged at this gross abuse of government over-regulation if this bill is enacted. Believe me, you do not want to be part of a town hall meeting after masses of your constituents learn the federal government has the final say over what they can do on their own property.
In reality, National Heritage Areas are nothing more than land targeted by NPS for future national parks, historic sites, landmarks, and land acquisition. This is evidenced today by S. 323, which intends to make the French Colonial Heritage Area in Missouri a permanent unit of the Park Service and a National Historic Site. The Rivers of Steel Heritage Area in Pennsylvania has existed almost exclusively as a NPS lobby—outwardly campaigning for federal land acquisition authority and national park status.
The federal government owns almost one-third of America’s total land mass. The National Park Service is assigned to caring for much of this property. At present, the Park Service is running a multibillion-dollar deferred maintenance backlog. It can’t handle its current responsibility. How on Earth does it make sense to give it more? A wise man once observed:
The federal government continues to acquire greater amounts of land throughout the nation. In almost every state, officials are saying it is time to address existing public lands’ needs before we swell the size of the federal government…
It’s time for Congress to protect the rights of private property owners and instill some common sense into federal land acquisitions.
These words were spoken only last Friday by our good Chairman Thomas upon the introduction of his “No-Net-Loss of Private Lands Act” (S. 591). If I may say so, it is a brilliant bill rooted in sound principle.
Proponents of NHAs also claim that they are “locally driven” projects. Nothing could be further from the truth. Landowners within the boundaries of proposed Heritage Areas are left in the dark throughout the entire process. Why? Because each and every Heritage Area bill refuses to include simple written notification to property owners. Seemingly the Park Service and their management “partners” are not too eager to share all the good news with the local citizenry.
If these National Heritage Areas were truly driven by local enthusiasm we wouldn’t even be here today. Instead, local enthusiasm would have attracted and generated local funding to create local Heritage Areas. Such locally supported Heritage Areas are plentiful across the nation. Instead, National Heritage Areas depend on federal tax dollars because they lack local interest—something they lack throughout their entire infinite lives. Proponents claim NHAs are merely seed grants, and that sooner or later, they will attain self-sufficiency and no longer need federal funding. Yet National Heritage Areas almost never meet their funding sunset triggers. Once created, they are permanent units of the National Park Service and always dependent on increased federal funds. Indeed, National Heritage Areas are the 40-year-old “child” still living in mommy and daddy’s basement. Someday, they swear, they’ll grow up and move out on their own. Yet that day never comes.
In fact, there is a bill before this very Congress (H.R. 888) that would extend the federal life of nine existing National Heritage Areas until the year 2027, and double their funding! It certainly appears that Junior has no plans to leave the basement. Life on the dole suits him fine.
In conclusion, National Heritage Areas are a worse idea now than they were ten years ago. Experience shows that they not only become federal funding albatrosses, but also public/private conglomerates that quash property rights and local economies through restrictive federal zoning practices. The real beneficiaries of National Heritage Areas are conservation groups, preservation societies, land trusts, and the National Park Service—essentially, organizations that are in constant pursuit of federal dollars, land acquisition, and restrictions on property rights.
True private property ownership lies in one’s ability to do with his property as he wishes. Zoning and land use policies are local decisions to be made by locally elected officials who are directly accountable to the citizens they represent. National Heritage Areas corrupt this inherently local procedure by adding federal dollars, federal oversight, and federal mandates to the mix.
Thank you again for inviting me to testify on this very important issue. I would be happy to answer any questions that the subcommittee may have.
March 11, 2005
By Tom DeWeese
The issue that will define our era and determine the nation’s future is illegal immigration. Political debate is full of schemes like “guest worker” programs and temporary worker cards to allow illegals to “fill jobs that Americans just don’t want to do.” Such programs are really just political doublespeak from politicians who lack the intestinal fortitude to protect the borders of the United States.
The truth is President Bush is pushing the guest worker plan because he is trying to appease Mexican President Vicente Fox who wants the borders between Mexico and the U.S. and Canada open, just like the European Union. Prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush and Fox agreed to consider granting permanent residency, “green cards”, to as many as three million Mexicans living illegally in the United States. The plan was temporarily sidetracked in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but now the White House has put it back on the agenda.
Fox thinks that the best way to save Mexico’s failing economy is to grab hold of the U.S. economy in what his administration calls “very common objectives.” Fox’s plan offers very little advantage to the United States.
Economically speaking, the plan offers no hope to solving Mexico’s institutional ills. The reason is that Mexico’s economic problems are created by the fact that Mexico is a socialist country that denies private ownership of property to its people, and taxes businesses to pay for just about any confiscation scheme its corrupt government can dream up.
It’s the same old story. Socialism can’t survive without a free market to prop it up. Mexico has sunk to the depths of socialist depravity and now desperately needs the U.S. economy to save it. Apparently, Fox has never considered fixing his own economy. Like all drowning despots, his only plan of action is to cling to our economy until it too starts to sink under the weight of a hoard of illegal aliens. These law breakers, with Fox’s help and encouragement, are rushing across the border for American goodies.
In an orchestrated plan to actually help Mexican citizens illegally cross our nation’s sovereign border, the Mexican government is creating tools to instruct them, in detail, how to do it. Once they are in our nation, Fox’s government then provides identification for the illegals to help them obtain American documentation and services.
Specifically, the Mexican government is distributing to its citizens a colorful new comic book with advice on how to cross the border. The 32-page book, “The Guide for the Mexican Migrant,” was published in December by Mexico’s Foreign Ministry. Using simple language and colorful drawings, the book offers safety information for illegal border crossings. The book also provides a primer on their legal rights once they get across, and gives advice on living unobtrusively in the United States.
The drawings provide dramatic depictions of undocumented immigrants wading through a river, running from the U.S. Border Patrol, and crouching near a hole in a border fence. On other pages, they hike through a desert and are caught by Border Patrol agents. The book gives no tips on how to obtain a U.S. visa, yet it offers border crossing safety tips such as, when crossing rivers, “Thick clothing increases your weight when wet, and this makes it difficult to swim or float.”
“This is more than just a wink and a nod,” says Rick Ottman, Western field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “This is so transparent, this is the Mexican government trying to protect its most valuable export, which is illegal migrants.” Ottman is referring to the fact that illegal Mexicans are taking billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy each year and sending the money back to Mexico. In fact, illegal immigration is one of Mexico’s biggest growth industries.
The comic book is being distributed as a free supplement to El Libro Vaquero, a popular cowboy comic book, in five Mexican states (Zacatecas, Michoacan, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Jalisco) that send the majority of illegals to the United States. The government plans to print 1.5 million copies.
Once over the border and safely tucked away in a U.S. city, the illegals need some form of identification to help them get jobs and government services. Again, the Mexican government is providing the answer for its “citizens.”
The Mexican government has issued more than 800,000 slick, pocket-sized identification cards to both legal and illegal immigrants. Of course, those immigrants who have come to this nation using legal means have no need for the cards. So the cards really are specifically designed to help illegals gain a foothold in this country. Called “matricula consular” cards, they are being distributed across the United States through the Embassy of Mexico and its 45 consulates in the U.S.
The cards list the holder’s birth date, place of birth, and U.S. address. The Mexican government is openly lobbying U.S. cities, police forces, local government agencies, and banks to accept the cards as official identification.
Ironically, today, legal U.S. citizens are about to be tied to a national ID card, controlled by massive data banks which document every aspect of our lives, including job history, tax history, medical records, and bank accounts. We’re told such intrusion into our private lives is necessary to protect the nation from terrorists. Within the next 18 months, the national ID cards will be in place, and without them, American citizens won’t be able to get on an airplane, open a bank account, buy a gun, get married, or function in any way in American society.
With the blessing of the Bush Administration, the Mexican government’s matricula cards are now accepted as a form of ID at 74 of the nation’s 9,000 banks. Illegal aliens, who have already broken our immigration laws by entering the country illegally can cash checks and open bank accounts. Yet there is nothing to assure that the cards carry accurate information and there is no means to check the background of the person holding the card. In practice, the consular cards are allowing illegal Mexicans to bypass the growing web of government control now being imposed on American citizens.
True to its promises to the Fox government, the Bush Administration has been silent, refusing to act on these unprecedented actions by a foreign government which are little more than a planned invasion of our nation. In truth, Fox’s policy is leading to little more than colonization of the United States by Mexico. Americans pay the bills, clean up the messes, and watch as our standard of living diminishes while illegals swamp hospitals, schools, and communities.
Fortunately, not all of our U.S. Representatives are turning a blind eye to this invasion. The President’s guest worker proposal is meeting staunch resistance from conservative Republicans in Congress. Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA) has called on the President to drop the plan, saying it would be “detrimental to our national and economic security.” Norwood has introduced the “Clear Law Enforcement for Alien Removal Act,” (CLEAR) which would force the government to enforce immigration laws and round up illegal aliens.
Most recently, Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ) introduced “The Financial Customer Identification Verification Improvement Act” (H.R. 815). Though a mouthful of a name, H.R. 815 will “prohibit the use of identification cards issued by foreign governments, including matricula consular cards for purposes of verifying the identity of a person who opens an account at a financial institution,” says Rep. Garrett. His bill will help foil the Mexican government’s outrageous efforts to undermine the sovereignty and independence of the United States.
The Bush Administration has tried to make the illegal immigration issue sound like an impossible problem to stop. The guest worker scheme is sold as a Band-Aid as we throw our hands in the air to surrender. Such bunk is nothing more than snake oil to cover very bad policy.
The fact is illegal immigration would be fairly easy to fix. First, allow the U.S. Border Patrol to do its job, like it tried to do in Los Angeles a few months back when officers began to round up illegals in the Hispanic neighborhoods. They were stopped by the “suits” in Washington.
Second, stop providing U.S. taxpayer funded programs like hospital care, access to public schools, and welfare handouts. Plans to provide Social Security payments to illegals should never be considered. Stop granting automatic citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants (known as “anchor babies”). This would stop the practice of running across the border just in time to give birth.
Finally, pass H.R. 815 and stop this outrageous attempt by the Mexican government to claim United States territory as their private annex. The Mexican government has no right to meddle in U.S. policy.
Politicians can puff up and spew rhetoric about guest worker programs and filling jobs Americans don’t want, but the truth is our nation is being flooded by people who don’t care about our heritage or culture. They have no allegiance to this country, and in fact, remain loyal to their home country. They choose not to learn our language and they ignore our laws. Our taxpayer-funded services are diminishing, as hospitals and schools are facing overcrowding and bankruptcy. This is no foundation on which to build our nation’s future.
Stop the flow of goods and services to illegal aliens, round up those already here, and strengthen the border. This will solve the problem. It’s really pretty simple. Passing H.R. 815 to stop acceptance of the matricula consular cards is a good start.
