[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10] [House] [Page 13423] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]PROPERTY OWNERS AT RISK (Mr. SULLIVAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the third anniversary of the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in the Kelo v. City of New London case. In that decision, a divided Supreme Court ruled that the government may take people's homes and bulldoze them to make way for strip malls or other private development in order to increase tax revenue. The negative effects of this far-reaching decision places all private property owners at risk. No property owner is safe if the government decides that their land would serve a better purpose and be an economic gain if something bigger and more taxable were in its place. To combat these unjust property takings, I introduced H.R. 6219 to protect the rights of the private property owners. With this bill, all Americans now have the tools they need to fight unjust property takings and defend their homes and small businesses. The government has overstepped its bounds in taking private property from people. It has also done the wrong thing in not allowing us to drill for oil and gas in America. It is very important that we get it in our own backyard. A lot of people on the Democratic side talk about alternative energy sources, and that is good. And we as Republicans believe in that. But also, we believe we need to get energy right here in our own backyard as well as we need to develop these technologies. ____________________