Private Property Rights

Recently, I was proud to sponsor a bill that will allow South Dakotans to buy back up to 13,775 acres of land from the federal government. That bill, the Blunt Reservoir and Pierre Canal Land Conveyance Act of 2005, received a hearing on the House Resources Subcommittee for Water and Power recently, and I am hopeful it will soon be heard by the full Committee.

The bill was crafted in response to a now defunct irrigation plan authorized in the Flood Control Act of 1944. That authorization led the Bureau of Reclamation to acquire approximately 19,000 acres in Hughes and Sully Counties before the project was abandoned in 1977. Today, many of the original landowners and their descendants continue to lease the land from the federal government as preferential lease holders. My bill gives the preferential lease holders, who now use almost 13,775 acres, the opportunity to buy back the land.

Because the project envisioned decades ago has been long abandoned, there is no reason for the federal government to continue to hold nearly 20,000 acres of land for which it has no use. These private citizens should be able to buy back the land they have been leasing for years.

Last year I worked on legislation to prevent governments from using eminent domain to favor one private owner over another, and this legislation is another step toward common sense protection of private property rights.

Passage of this bill will be a victory for private property rights, the local tax-base and, importantly, for South Dakota's sportsmen and women as well. In fact, the bill would also transfer 5,462 acres of non-preferentially-leased lands and unleased lands to the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks to be used for wildlife management and outdoor recreation. Hunting is not only an important part of our state's quality of life, it's an increasingly important economic activity as well, and the bill recognizes the value of wildlife habitat.

The hearing included testimony from a South Dakotan, Darla Pollman Rogers, who has represented the original landowners for many years, and John Cooper, the South Dakota Secretary of Game Fish and Parks. Because of the strong case they made, I am optimistic that this bill will move through to the full committee later this year.