After three years and four pieces of legislation sent to the Senate by the House, on Monday night the chickens came home to roost. The voices of the people were drowned out no more, and thanks to eleven brave Senators who refused to buckle, a vote was forced on legislation to protect the landowners of Iowa against the use of eminent domain to seize their property to build the CO2 pipeline.
The pipeline can be built with voluntary easements, but instead, to save money, Summit has chosen to use the heavy hand of government power through eminent domain to seize the land of others. I have been told that many who refused to sign easements were treated disrespectfully. This project in the opinion of many legal scholars does not meet the Iowa constitutional requirement for being a public use project and runs afoul of the Takings Clause of the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Property rights are in our DNA as Americans. It is one of the reasons we fought a revolution, and as George Washington reminded us, “Freedom and property rights are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other.” With our state motto being “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain,” it should have come as no surprise that the citizens of Iowa would fight to protect their fundamental right of private property.
So, here we are today. The House sent four pieces of legislation to the Senate over a three-year period to protect landowners. Senate leadership refused to bring them to the floor for a vote. This year we sent them two strong bills to uphold the Constitutional rights of landowners. One of them they ignored, and Senator Bousselot attempted to destroy the other one with a poison pill amendment that did nothing to protect property owners impacted by the Summit CO2 pipeline. Thanks to eleven brave Republican senators who refused to pass budgets until the voices of the people were heard, HF639 came to the floor for a vote in the Senate. As a Republican, I was saddened to see how some Republican senators conducted themselves on the floor, attacking the freedom fighters who insisted that the voices of the people be heard, and the Constitution be upheld.
HF639 was attacked as being written by environmental extremists, a ridiculous argument. The bill was written by conservative Republicans, including myself. We are not environmental extremists; we support the concept that we should Drill, Baby Drill, but we also believe in the Constitution and insist that its principles and protections be honored.
HF639 was also attacked as being a terrible bill. Yet, those attacking it offered no alternatives that truly protected landowners. Those attacking it were sent four pieces of legislation over a three-year period, and they did nothing. Their claim of being for landowner rights was betrayed by the reality of their actions.
In the spirit of GOP Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann, who in 2006 wrote eminent domain legislation to protect landowners and spearheaded the successful effort to override Governor Vilsack’s veto of it, and in keeping with the requirements of the Iowa Constitution and the Republican Party of Iowa Platform, HF639 passed both chambers with the majority of elected Republicans in support. In contrast to past efforts in which Democrats opposed eminent domain protections, this time many of them supported the legislation. HF639 passed with bipartisan support. It passed by a vote of 85 to 10 in the House and 27 to 22 in the Senate. The people, through their elected representatives, have spoken.
Lobbyists supporting renewable fuels believe the pipeline must be built to support ethanol. This is in fact an economic development argument, not an argument that supports the constitutional public use requirement. The pipeline can be built with voluntary easements, and the fact that some believe it to be essential for the future of ethanol does not mean we toss the constitution aside. We must not do that because that is not who we are. We can support economic development; we can support agriculture while also supporting the constitutional rights of my constituents in Shelby County and across our amazing state.
For over three years I have watched landowners fight for their private property rights, and in fighting for these rights, they were fighting for the rights of all of us. They have lived with uncertainty, threats, fear, exhaustion, and economic hardship in having to hire attorneys and fight for the legacy of their land and the future of their children. I have seen the frustration in their eyes with their government when year after year their voices were ignored in the Senate as elected officials hid behind process. Some elected officials had to be reminded that government exists in our great country not to restrain the people, but rather to constrain itself, because the power in the United States of America and the state of Iowa must always belong to the people.
Thanks to the steadfast effort of House Republicans, the incredible efforts of landowners, and eleven brave Senators, the voices of the people have been heard, and they reverberate in HF639. It only remains for the Governor to recognize the will of the people and their constitutional rights and sign this legislation as quickly as possible.
I look forward to our Governor signing this legislation, cementing her legacy as a leader who stands for freedom and the Constitution, as she has done since she became our Governor.
