The Livability Agenda proposes funding $700 million for EPA-approved bonds for local environmental projects such as creating or expanding parks and other green areas in local communities. While preserving open spaces in our communities is a laudable goal, this particular initiative gives the EPA an unprecedented new reach of power over local land-use decisions. The EPA already intrudes on local community environmental planning through programs such as the American Heritage Rivers Initiative. In this program, instead of encouraging local participation and commitment by the citizens who will be affected by the program, the Administration has taken a "top-down" approach giving priority to federal bureaucracies. The real stakeholders - property owners, farmers, county commissioners, local zoning boards - have not had a legitimate seat at the table at any point throughout the Heritage Rivers designation process. Based on the EPA's record on the Heritage Rivers Initiative, there is little doubt that the EPA won't take a heavy-handed approach to the proposed Livability Agenda.

In addition to strengthening the hand of the EPA in our local communities, the Administration's Lands Legacy Initiative proposes spending $1 billion on government land acquisitions. As it is, the federal government already owns 25 percent of our nation's land - that's one out of every four acres - and the government can barely manage what it owns now. What is perhaps more troubling is that this Administration has infringed on the rights of private property owners by allowing United Nations designation of United States acreage as biosphere and heritage reserves, often without consulting local people.

The federal government simply does not need to own more of our land, and the United Nations certainly has no place managing environmental policy on American soil. In fact, I recently joined over 125 of my colleagues in Congress in supporting the "American Lands Sovereignty Protection Act." This legislation would restore the constitutional role of Congress in governing the lands belonging to the United States - thereby ensuring that American individuals and communities have a direct and relevant role in this process. This bill is but one step in defending the private property rights set forth by our Founding Fathers and protected by our Constitution.

By general accounts, the Administration proposed the Livability Agenda and the Lands Legacy Initiative programs in response to a loss of open space in our nation's expanding suburbs. This may be a legitimate concern, but the approach set forth in the President's budget is not the way to go. I believe that the approach taken this week by Congress in the American Lands Sovereignty Protection Act is more in tune with our constitutionally protected right to private property. Just as in the 105th Congress, this Congress is committed to ensuring that the basic tenants of our American freedoms are not eroded and will respond accordingly when the actions of the Administration attempt to undermine the bedrock principles of our nation. As long as I am representing you - the people - I will not let my guard down in protecting our sovereignty and our constitutional right to property ownership.