Unconstitutional usurpation of
Congress's legislative powers by Department of Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt and others has produced an
increasingly monstrous bureaucratic dictatorship under
which Westerners are struggling, said Nevada's Second
District representative in the Wednesday speech.
The usurpation, asserted Gibbons, has become
"so powerful and hurtful that it cripples the
economy, puts a stranglehold on businesses and farms,
destroys livelihoods and families, and yet seems
unstoppable."
In the speech -- published Thursday in the
Congressional Record under the title, "BLM
Bullies" -- Gibbons said federal agencies operating
in the western states are effectively depriving citizens
in those states of their liberty.
"Americans are no longer free," he
said. "They are chained to the dictatorship of
bureaucratic monsters. It is time for Congress to stand
up for its constitutional rights and the protection of
the American people."
"This is exactly what I and the
Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands intend to
do tomorrow when we bring the BLM and the Department of
the Interior
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before our committee
and the American people."
In the subcommittee hearings on Thursday,
Gibbons confronted high Bureau of Land Management
officials with an incident he'd reported on the House
floor the day before (see full text of Congressional
Record statement).
In the account of a 1994 New Mexico incident
given by Gibbons, shot-gun-wielding BLM officers had
acted like abusive, lawless thugs. It was an example,
suggested the congressman, of what Americans can expect
if Bureau of Land Management policing plans go forward.
Broader law enforcement regulations were first
proposed by the federal agency for itself last year.
Eventually, this spring, under heavy political pressure
from Western congressmen, Secretary Babbitt withdrew the
proposed new rules. However, recently he and other agency
officials have been asserting that current regulations
authorize broad police powers for the agency in Western
states.
In Thursday's hearing, the BLM's top
law-enforcement supervisor, Hord Tipton, responded to
Gibbons' account of the 1994 New Mexico
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