Protecting Missouri Farmers from Federal Land Grabs

Few things are more sacred than our right to own property, farm, and provide for our families. That’s why our Founding Fathers sought to protect landowners from government land grabs with the Fifth Amendment. Sadly, too many Washington bureaucrats don’t get it—and that’s precisely why we need stronger laws to protect our rights.

There are few places where this problem is more apparent than the rails-to-trails process. In theory, it's a great idea; taking old out-of-use rail lines and preserving the corridors as walking trails seems like a win-win. There's a problem, though—a big one.

When these old rail lines were put in, landowners were told their land would be returned if the railroad was abandoned. Instead, Congress authorized the federal government to take the land from the railroads and give it to others to turn into a walking trail. Not only does this process unconstitutionally take land away from private landowners without just compensation, it creates a new set of headaches for them. I've introduced the Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act to ensure landowners get what they're owed and give them a voice.

While this program has long trampled on private property rights, it's not nearly enough to satisfy the power-hungry bureaucrats. Tucked away in the Biden-Harris Administration's so-called "infrastructure" bill was a provision to give the federal government the authority to overrule state permitting decisions for electric transmission lines. That gives them all they need to greenlight projects to get "green energy" from the West to the East Coast with no benefit to Missouri. I introduced the Protecting Farmers from the Green New Deal Act to repeal these provisions, return these permitting decisions to the states, and protect the rights of Missouri landowners.

This is about more than transmission lines and trails. There are a million other ways bureaucrats in Washington are trying to trample on our property rights. That's why I'm continuing to fight WOTUS overreach and working to ban the Corps of Engineers from taking Missouri farmland for fish and wildlife purposes. The Constitution secures our rights to own property, farm, and provide for our families, but that doesn't mean we can let our guard down. We must be vigilant so that we can pass these freedoms and rights we enjoy to the next generation.

Sincerely,

Sam Graves