mr. conyers: thank you, sir. why are we passing this law if the conduct we're prohibiting already illegal? mr. lungren: i'll be very much happy to respond to at and i will a little bit later in my statement. sometimes when congress is dedicated to redundancy, there is a question of clarification. and the fact that we've had questions asked of us over the last several hours as house administration chairman, as the ethics chairman has done, gives rise to the question that some have asked and we have tried to disabuse them of that notion all along. although we create and uphold the laws of the land we are not above them. as elected representatives we owe our constituents to assure them that the decisions we make are for the people, not ourselves. and this assurance, mad speaker, must be governmentwide. america not only needs to know that all of their government officials are subject to insider trading laws but also need to know and need proof that they're adhering to them which is exactly what the amended version of

mr. conyers: thank you very much. i am pleased now to yield to the distinguished gentleman from maryland, the ranking member of oversight and government reform, elijah cummings, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for two minutes. mr. cummings: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to thank ms. slaughter and mr. walz for your tremendous work. i stand here and urge our members to support this bill, but certainly i have my concerns. the house republicans stripped out of a bipartisan bill that passed the senate overwhelmingly key provision that is were supported by democrats and republicans alike. senator grassley and senator from iowa who i worked with quite a bit as ranking member was among the first who criticized their actions. and after they stripped out his provisions to require greater transparency over so-called political intelligence, consultant senator grassley said and has been said again and again and i think it needs to be pla

mr. conyers: thank you, sir. why are we paing this law if the conduct we're prohibiting is already illegal? mr. lungren: i'll be very much happy to respond to that and i will a little bit later in my statement. sometimes when congress is dedicated to redundancy, there is a question of clarification. and the fact that we've had questions asked of us over the last several hours as house administration chairman, as the ethics chairman has done, gives rise to the question that some have asked and we have tried to disabuse them of that notion all along. although we create and uphold the laws of the land we are not above them. as elected representatives we owe our constituents to assure them that the decisions we make are for the people, not ourselves. and this assurance, madam speaker, must be governntwide. america not only needs to know that all of their government officials are subject to insider trading laws but also need to know and need proof that they're adhering to them which is exactly what the amended version

without objection, the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, controls 20 minutes. mr. conyers: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. conyers: i reluctantly rise in opposition to the measure before us. the so-called private property rights protection act. now, while the goal of this legislation to protect property owners and tenants from the abuse of eminent domain is laudable and important, it would in reality is up plant the work they have already done to respond to the -- supplant the work they have already done to respond to the keylow vs. city of new london in the seven years since the court handed down that decision. most importantly, whatever the concerns my colleagues may have about the keylow decision, the use and abuse of the power of eminent domain, i hope that every member would look very carefully of the penalty it will impose on states, counties, cities and towns across the country. even if they never take a single piece of property, even if a jurisdiction never uses eminent domain at all, the

mr. conyers: thank you, sir. why are we passing this law if the conduct we're prohibiting is already illegal? mr. lungren: i'll be very much happy to respond to that and i will a little bit later in my statement. sometimes when congress is dedicated to redundancy, there is a question of clarification. and the fact that we've had questions asked of us over the last several hours as house administration chairman, as the ethics chairman has done, gives rise to the question that some have asked and we have tried to disabuse them of that notion all along. although we create and uphold the laws of the land we are not above them. as elected representatives we owe our constituents to assure them that the decisions we make are for the people, not ourselves. and this assurance, madam speaker, must be governmentwide. america not only needs to know that all of their government officials are subject to insider trading laws but also need to know and need proof that they're adhering to them which is exactly what the amended ver

mr. conyers: mr. speaker, i have no further speakers, and i am prepared to return the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. goodlatte: i yield myself such time as i may consume to say that i urge my colleagues to adopt this bipartisan legislation to restore meaning to the fifth amendment to the constitution as justice sandra dayo connor noted in her descent in that opinion, the kelo decision renders meaningless under this law because as the interpretation exists, as the court ruling exists, state and local governmented can seize property almost for any reason under the context of calling it for purposes of economic development and we need to change that. we need to make sure that private property is what people think it is and that is something that they have the right to own and not be interfered with -- by the government except for real purposes of eminent domain, taking land for pure public uses like roads and utilities and schools and other clearly public uses

mr. conyers: i have an amendment at -- mr. connolly: i have an amendment at the desk. the clerk: amendment offered by mr. connolly of virginia. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 537, the gentleman from virginia and a member opposed will each control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia. mr. connolly: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, both the transportation, infrastructure and the oversight and government reform committees have marked up legislation to save money through the disposal of federal property. we've identified bipartisan exron ground on the subject in the past. i hope we can continue to do so with this bill. in the oversight and government reform committee, members and staff have worked on a bipartisan basis to report legislation, expediting the disposal of real federal property. the bill reported unanimously included by voice vote my amendment to protect the ability of local governments to work with the federal government on real property disposal. the amendment before us today includes identical language to protect loca