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hedgetrimmer post #224:

hedgetrimmer post #235: Yes it dissovles our soveiegnty when our congress agrees to sign treaties like this. If you do something that violates one of these treaties, you can be held liable by international organizations. Is that not weakening our sovereignty?

Displayed above are two of your posts. They contradict each other. In one post you identify a potential danger. In the other post you fall off the face of flat earth...

Just because I believe in the supremacy of the US Constitution, it doesn't mean that those in Congress do.

I can give you more than one example, but take a look at Sam Farr. He believes in the supremacy of the UN and his voting record shows it.

So tell me again how the actions of others to hurt US sovereignty contradicts my opinion about the US Constitution?

Tell me,

If Congress signs an agreement that creates a supranational body to take over a constitutionally specified responsibility of Congress, does that hurt US sovereignty?

And if that agreement with other nations gives them the ability to impose sanctions on us or levy fines, where they did not have that ability previously?

Mrs. CHENOWETH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Alaska for yielding this time to me.

Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting how the debate deteriorates when people do not have the facts at hand, and we are not debating about black helicopters and paranoid people and extremists. We are debating about this issue, which is, who should control the land mass in the United States? Should not the Congress have a say in whether the U.N. comes in certain instances and controls certain areas? That is the simple question. There is nothing in here about blue helmets or anything like that.

I stand today in strong support of H.R. 3752, the American Land Sovereignty Protection Act of 1996, and I commend the chairman of the Committee on Resources, Mr. Young, for introducing and moving this bill. It has to be part of the debate, and I hope we can stick to the facts.

H.R. 3752 will establish a simple process of due process, and will reestablish the role of Congress where it should be in the first place, as the ultimate decision-maker who manages the lands of the United States and who should maintain sovereign control of the lands in the United States of America.

There are two types of land designations of international status by the United Nations currently taking place with no congressional approval. That is wrong, Mr. Speaker. There are biosphere reserves carried out by the United Nations environmental, sociological and cultural organizations, and World Heritage sites which are sponsored by the U.N.-backed World Heritage Committee.

Mr. Speaker, more than 51 million acres in this country has already been designated by the U.N., with the agency's consent, without congressional consent, as either World Heritage sites or biosphere reserves. That is 51 million acres of U.S. soil, an area nearly the size if the whole State of Colorado, that the U.N. has taken control of without congressional involvement and legitimate public participation.

A biosphere reserve is a federally zoned and coordinated region consisting of three areas or zones that meet certain minimum requirements established by the United Nations. The inner or most protected area, the core zone, are usually Federal lands, whereas the outer zones are not-Federal lands. That is either private property or State property.

Mr. Speaker, currently 10 Federal agencies involved in the biosphere reserve are competing for turf with each other. This is occurring despite the fact that the United States withdrew their participation from UNESCO in 1984 because of gross financial mismanagement, and Congress has never, not once, ratified the Biodiversity Treaty which calls for these biosphere reserve designations.

When the Committee on Resources held hearings on this bill, we heard testimony from private property owners and local officials all around the country who felt that their role in the land management process had been significantly diminished by these designations. Many of these people did not even know their own property or their city or country's property, and State property, and surrounding lands were involved in this particular designation until final decisions were made.

Mr. Speaker, when laws and processes established by the Congress to manage our resources are bypassed by the agencies and by the executive, not only does this create an atmosphere of secrecy and confusion, but it violates our very sovereignty. What we are doing in this bill is saying, let us open up the process to the light of day, instead of such a secretive process as we have seen with the impact of the World Heritage site. That includes a large buffer zone surrounding Yellowstone Park.