Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentleman.

I also offered an amendment to ensure that States are required to pay penalties and interest in cases where they run afoul of this bill.

I am well aware of the needs of local communities and the needs of economic development; but I am glad that this Congress seeks today to stand up on behalf of private property rights and owners. I am delighted that in the course of working in particular with this issue, we have a fair and balanced approach. Let me just give you a very brief example, and I thank the gentleman for his courtesy.

The history of eminent domain is rife with abuse specifically targeting racial and ethnic and poor neighborhoods. Now, redlining may not be equated to condemning neighborhoods or eminent domain; but when you don't allow a neighborhood to refurbish itself, to refinance, you are putting it in the line quickly for being a target of eminent domain. A 2004 study estimated that 1,600 African American neighborhoods were destroyed by municipal projects in Los Angeles. In San Jose, California, 95 percent of the properties targeted for economic redevelopment are Hispanic or Asian owned, despite the fact that only 30 percent of businesses in that area are owned by racial or ethnic minorities.

In Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, officials have targeted for economic development a neighborhood in which the percentage of African American residents, 44 percent, is twice that of the entire township and nearly triple that of Burlington County. Lastly, according to a 1989 study, 90 percent of the 10,000 families displaced by highway projects in Baltimore were African Americans.

In my own home State of Texas, I remember a very well-stocked neighborhood of teachers and various blue collar workers. We called it Third Ward, Riverside, a thriving area. Its schools were schools like E.O. Smith and Jack Yates High School. And in the course of trying to develop a major highway, in fact, that neighborhood was ultimately, in essence, diminished--diminished greatly.

So as growth comes, I understand it, but I think this is an excellent balance. I want economic development. I want to see growth, but I would like it to support and encourage thriving neighborhoods of all backgrounds and diversity.

This legislation will help in doing so, and I believe it will correct decisions made previously and allow Texans, allow Californians, New Yorkers, Midwesterners, Southerners, Northerners, Easterners and Westerners to have a fair balance when the government comes and says it's time to take your property. I ask my colleagues to support this legislation.