by David Parkhurst and Leslie Wollack

In a frantic final week before recess for the midterm elections, with critical legislation piled up and only two appropriations bills close to adoption, the House leadership prepared to muscle HR 4772, the Private Property Rights Implementation Act, through for a second vote despite a stunning defeat earlier in the week.

Thanks to a strong grassroots lobbying effort by NLC?s state leagues and individual cities, the bill failed to receive a required two-thirds majority, 234 to 172, in its first vote on Sept. 26 under suspension of the rules.

?If you vote for this bill, you will spend the rest of your career explaining to your constituents why you robbed them of the ability to control the character of their own neighborhoods,? Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) said in a letter to lawmakers, urging them to vote against it.

After the vote, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a statement that he intended to bring the bill back for another vote later in the week under a new rule that would prohibit amendments and only require a simple majority for passage. House leadership planned to take up the bill on Sept. 29 before leaving for recess. (As Nation?s Cities Weekly went to print, the House had not voted again on HR 4772.)

HR 4772, sponsored by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), would permit property owners to bypass state courts and go directly into federal court with a challenge to local land use or zoning actions. NLC believes that the bill would undermine local zoning authority to protect private homes and businesses, create greater federal court intrusion into local land use decisions, and impose significant financial costs on state and local governments, both in terms of added litigation expenses and potential damage awards.

Despite the furious House activity over HR 4772, there is no Senate companion bill and previous attempts to pass similar legislation there have failed. With Congress in recess until November, there is no possibility for Senate action until the post-election lame duck session, which already faces a full agenda of appropriations bills and national security matters.

Spending Bills
Both the appropriations bill for the Department of Defense, HR 5631, and the appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, HR 5441, became potential targets for other legislative items that the leadership sought to complete before adjourning for the midterm elections.


Given that Congress has been unable to resolve their difference in approach to immigration reform, the House sought to repass the individual pieces of their original immigration bill and attach them to other legislation, such as these must-pass appropriations bills, in the final days of activity last week. Ultimately, intense opposition to an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform kept the House-passed immigration provisions from being included in either of the bills.

NLC supports a comprehensive approach to immigration reform and was concerned that an enforcement-only approach would take away the urgency to address other critical issues in the immigration debate.

As Nation?s Cities Weekly went to press, both bills were under consideration and were expected to pass before the recess.

Details: Visit www.nlc.org to see how each member of Congress voted on HR 4772 on Sept. 26.