July 2004     

"Get Out Act" will kill rural America

By Chuck Cushman

The new CARA bill, called the "Get Out" (GO) Act (HR 4100), is virtually identical to the old CARA bill. As we calculate it, $3.1 billion per year will come automatically for 18 years, mostly to buy land. The total amount will be $56 billion. All of this is off-budget, and not subject to appropriations. How can the authors of HR 4100 give this CARA twin a higher priority than the military, education, or healthcare? Outrageous!

HR 4100 will force thousands of landowners and farmers off of their land. No landowner will be safe. It will wipe out the mining industry, and do great damage to the oil industry. It will undermine private forestry. It will destroy local communities. It will reduce local tax bases, forcing taxes up for those who remain, and ultimately turn rural America into a playground for the rich - driving out the original occupants.

The "Get Out" (GO) of Rural America Act will destroy more private property than any legislation in history. No landowner or inholder will be safe anywhere near a National Park, National Forest, Wildlife Refuge, National Trail, National Seashore, National Recreation Area, National Scenic Area, Bureau of Land Management Area, Corps of Engineer area, and other federally managed lands.

It will expand the power of government to use the Endangered Species Act to destroy the value of your property. Then, they'll have the money to force you out at a reduced price, even as they destroy the economy of your community.

Organizations supporting the "Get Out" Act include:

The Nature Conservancy

Trust for Public Land

Izaak Walton League of America

National Parks and Conservation Association

National Wildlife Federation

Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association

United States Soccer Foundation

Outdoor Industry Association

International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Americans for Our Heritage and Recreation

National Coalition for Promoting Physicall Activity

American Hiking Society

Why You Should Oppose The "Get Out" of Rural America:

• Condemnation - HR 4100 allows state and federal condemnation (eminent domain) of private land. The GO Act provides billions of dollars over 18 years for government agents to condemn private property, and then turn it into Wilderness - no access, no people. It even says they'll buy from willing sellers. Yet, the former Land Acquisition Director for the Park Service said that is meaningless. If they want to drive you out, they can. It's the money.

• The "Get Out" of Rural America Act funds your enemies. Environmental law firms receive grant money so they can sue you into bankruptcy. Much of HR 4100 will go to The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land.

• HR 4100 will encourage the designation of new United Nations Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites, threatening American sovereignty over our own lands.

• Lands cut off by Forest Service Roadless Areas and Roads Policies will become targets as well. HR 4100 greatly enhances the chances for more Roadless Area lockup. There are over one million acres of private land locked up in existing Forest Service Roadless Areas.

• HR 4100 funding will allow your enemies to look for Endangered Species on your lands. All will become targets of land acquisition. Just look at the Klamath Basin in Oregon, and California. Extremists gain $60 million per year from the "Get Out" Act - to train an army of investigators who will trespass on your land to locate and police endangered species. Stop HR 4100, and you block huge grants to environmental groups to expand the ESA as a tool to destroy you.

• Should the "Get Out" Act be more important than medical care or the military? HR 4100 sets aside $3.1 billion per year guaranteed, $56 billion over 18 years, most of it to buy land, drive rural landowners out of their homes, off their farms, and into the cities. The "Get Out" Act does not have to compete in Congress for funds in the appropriations process with medical care, education, defense, or other social needs. Make the "Get Out" Act compete in the appropriations process. No guaranteed trust fund.

• Hunters and sportsmen will gradually lose access to acquired lands. Lands will gradually be converted to OFF-LIMITS Wilderness, and other YOU CAN'T GO THERE areas. A Congressman supporting the "Get Out" Act is supporting a closure of vast areas of Federal and private lands to hunters and sportsmen.

• Some members of Congress may suggest that minor property rights provisions added to the "Get Out" Act as a bandaid will protect landowners, and make the bill better than current law. The dangers from the $3.1 billion-per-year, 18-year trust fund, far outweigh any so-called provisions that are mostly decorative. HR 4100 sponsors are trying to gloss over the fact that the "Get Out" Act allows condemnation of private land.

It's the money. If these agencies get money, they will gradually destroy your communities, and force you out. They will destroy the economic ecosystem, and make you want to leave. They have ways to make you into a willing seller.

The next few weeks are critical to defeating the "Get Out" of Rural America Act. By putting up a battle quickly, you'll get other members of Congress, other Senators, and other organizations to take a closer look at the dangers from HR 4100. You can make it more controversial.

Every time you see the "Get Out" Act, think of CARA. They are the same. The greens want to shut down rural America. They want to force you into the cities. Only the Endangered Species Act comes close to imposing as much damage on you as HR 4100, and HR 4100 will make the Endangered Species Act even more dangerous and more powerful.

Chuck Cushman is the director of the American Land Rights Association. To get caught up on the evils of CARA and the "Get Out" of Rural America Act, go to www.landrights.org.