CARA Land Grab Vote Delayed!

A vote on the CARA Pork Barrel Land Grab was put off until Thursday or Friday, April 5 or 6!

YOUR EFFORTS moved several Senators into action to defend private property rights and fiscal responsibility!!! (See below who some of our HEROES are).

YOU HAVE succeeded so far - please keep going for two more days and we will win another round.

CARA, which would provide over one billion dollars per year to government agents to condemn private land for almost any reason, from historical preservation to baseball stadium construction to more wilderness, was derailed - for at least one day.

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's last-minute amendment to add CARA as part of the Federal Budget guidelines was put off and not introduced on Wednesday. However, the Senate debate on the Federal Budget guidelines will continue on Thursday and conclude on Friday. The Landrieu CARA amendment could be introduced at any time on those two days.

The Landrieu CARA amendment would include room for CARA in the Federal Budget guidelines being debated this week. It is not a vote directly on CARA, but a vote on making it part of the budget plan, which would increase CARA's chances if it is brought up later this year.

"CARA" is the Conservation and Reinvestment Act. However, it should be called the Condemnation and Relocation Act because of the massive, unprecedented land acquisition funding in the bill.

It could also be called the Congressional Abdication of Responsibility Act because in addition to the land acquisition, it creates a trust fund of guaranteed money for pork barrel spending projects, mostly for Louisiana.

And guess who wants to load up the federal budget with this disaster - Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. Senator Landrieu has decided to say "Take a Hike" to land owners, because CARA also includes three hundred million dollars per year for bridges, roads, levee construction, courthouses and more - whether it is justified or necessary or not - guaranteed for Louisiana. That's a pretty good deal, except for the taxpayers of the other forty-nine states!

Public works projects are necessary and we all need them. But why should Louisiana get a special deal at everyone else's expense???

CARA establishes a Pork Barrel Land Grab trust fund - guaranteed money for two purposes - land acquisition and pork barrel spending.

Spending for national defense is NOT a trust fund - it is part of the annual regular appropriations process. So CARA proposes to make land acquisition and Louisiana pork a higher priority than national defense!!!

OUR HEROES - here are SOME of the Senators who we know are fighting FOR private property rights and AGAINST more government lands and wilderness designations that will result from CARA:

Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming.
Senator Conrad Burns of Montana.
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma.
Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.

If you live in their states, be sure and THANK them.

ACTION ITEM:

CALL, FAX AND E-MAIL YOUR SENATORS. The call and fax are best.

DO NOT TAKE ANY SENATOR FOR GRANTED.

Do Not Fail To Make Your Calls - Please!!!

Here is a temporary FREE NUMBER to call any Senator: 
(800) 648-3516.

EVERY SENATOR MAY BE CALLED AT THE REGULAR CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD (202) 224-3121.

URGE THEM TO VOTE NO on the Landrieu CARA amendment! NO land grabs!

Two more days - Thursday and Friday - and we will win another round!

Reasons to fight CARA:

***It creates a trust fund that makes land acquisition a higher priority than defense spending!

***It includes over a billion dollars per year GUARANTEED to hand over to state and federal government agents to condemn private land!

***Land acquisition and condemnation has always been used as a weapon by the Federal land agencies to regulate and control private landowners.

***CARA could cause hundreds of small communities in existing Federal areas to be wiped off the map.

***CARA sets aside $3 billion per year, $45 billion over 15 years that does not have to compete with medical care, education, defense or any other social need. Most of this money goes for land acquisition.

***It gives money to giant land trusts like the Conservation Fund and Nature Conservancy to buy more land and turn it over to government agents.

Of course, the land trusts make a "profit."

***CARA will destroy farms, ranches, access to minerals and forests and undermine the economic survivability of resource dependent communities nationwide.

***CARA will provide millions of Federal dollars to State Game and Fish agencies to impose many new Endangered Species Act designations and regulations.

***Access by geologists for exploration, discovery and development of important mineral sites will be limited because CARA will enhance large scale land closures and the purchase of potential mining properties such as the New World Mine in Montana. CARA will cost jobs.

***CARA will undermine the economic ecosystem of rural America. As farms, ranches, mines, forestry operations and other private property are purchased by Federal and state land acquisition, small towns and whole communities will begin to wither and gradually die over time.

***The Federal land agencies have purchased over seven million acres of private land since 1966. Rural America will be damaged beyond repair if CARA becomes law and funds the acquisition of as much as 20 million more acres of rural land in and around small towns and communities over the next 15 years.

***With land acquisition funding well over $1 billion per year, the greens will lobby for more and more before every election. No matter how much they get, it will never be enough.

***CARA buys private land converting it to Federal land which means a lot of it will go into new Federal natural management locations and Wilderness areas where hunters and fishermen have little or no access. CARA should require no net loss of lands available to hunting.

***Federal 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.

***CARA sends hundreds of millions of dollars to the states and local governments in a smoke screen for Federal dollar control with strings attached about how the money is spent to meet Federal land use planning goals.

***CARA vastly increases the amount of funds to convert tax paying private land into over regulated Federal land controlled by the Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM. This is a bad idea.

Call both your Senators!

Forward this message to at least five other people.

Call five friends and have them call.

Click here to send up to ten of your friends to our site so they can take action!