website maintained by the United States Depart-
ment of Justice for use by the public and by the au-
thorities in each State and political subdivisions of 
each State empowered to take private property and 
convert it to public use subject to just compensation 
for the taking. 
(b) NOTIFICATION TO PROPERTY OWNERS AND TEN-
ANTS.—Not later than 30 days after the enactment of this 
Act, the Attorney General shall publish in the Federal 
Register and make available on the Internet website main-
tained by the United States Department of Justice a no-
tice containing the text of this Act and a description of 
the rights of property owners and tenants under this Act. 
SEC. 7. REPORTS. 
(a) BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this Act, and every subse-
quent year thereafter, the Attorney General shall transmit 
a report identifying States or political subdivisions that 
have used eminent domain in violation of this Act to the 
Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on the 
Judiciary of the House of Representatives and to the 
Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on the 
Judiciary of the Senate. The report shall— 
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(1) identify all private rights of action brought 
as a result of a State’s or political subdivision’s vio-
lation of this Act; 
(2) identify all violations reported by property 
owners and tenants under section 5(c) of this Act; 
(3) identify the percentage of minority residents 
compared to the surrounding nonminority residents 
and the median incomes of those impacted by a vio-
lation of this Act; 
(4) identify all lawsuits brought by the Attorney 
General under section 5(d) of this Act; 
(5) identify all States or political subdivisions 
that have lost Federal economic development funds 
as a result of a violation of this Act, as well as de-
scribe the type and amount of Federal economic de-
velopment funds lost in each State or political sub-
division and the Agency that is responsible for with-
holding such funds; and 
(6) discuss all instances in which a State or po-
litical subdivision has cured a violation as described 
in section 2(c) of this Act. 
(b) DUTY OF STATES.—Each State and local author-
ity that is subject to a private right of action under this 
Act shall have the duty to report to the Attorney General 
such information with respect to such State and local au-
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thorities as the Attorney General needs to make the report 
required under subsection (a). 
SEC. 8. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING RURAL AMERICA. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The founders realized the fundamental im-
portance of property rights when they codified the 
Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Con-
stitution, which requires that private property shall 
not be taken ‘‘for public use, without just compensa-
tion’’. 
(2) Rural lands are unique in that they are not 
traditionally considered high tax revenue-generating 
properties for State and local governments. In addi-
tion, farmland and forest land owners need to have 
long-term certainty regarding their property rights 
in order to make the investment decisions to commit 
land to these uses. 
(3) Ownership rights in rural land are funda-
mental building blocks for our Nation’s agriculture 
industry, which continues to be one of the most im-
portant economic sectors of our economy. 
(4) In the wake of the Supreme Court’s deci-
sion in Kelo v. City of New London, abuse of emi-
nent domain is a threat to the property rights of all 
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private property owners, including rural land own-
ers. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that the use of eminent domain for the purpose of 
economic development is a threat to agricultural and other 
property in rural America and that the Congress should 
protect the property rights of Americans, including those 
who reside in rural areas. Property rights are central to 
liberty in this country and to our economy. The use of 
eminent domain to take farmland and other rural property 
for economic development threatens liberty, rural econo-
mies, and the economy of the United States. The taking 
of farmland and rural property will have a direct impact 
on existing irrigation and reclamation projects. Further-
more, the use of eminent domain to take rural private 
property for private commercial uses will force increasing 
numbers of activities from private property onto this Na-
tion’s public lands, including its National forests, National 
parks and wildlife refuges. This increase can overburden 
the infrastructure of these lands, reducing the enjoyment 
of such lands for all citizens. Americans should not have 
to fear the government’s taking their homes, farms, or 
businesses to give to other persons. Governments should 
not abuse the power of eminent domain to force rural 
property owners from their land in order to develop rural 
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land into industrial and commercial property. Congress 
has a duty to protect the property rights of rural Ameri-
cans in the face of eminent domain abuse. 
SEC. 9. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the policy of the United States to encourage, 
support, and promote the private ownership of property 
and to ensure that the constitutional and other legal rights 
of private property owners are protected by the Federal 
Government. 
SEC. 10. RELIGIOUS AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS. 
(a) PROHIBITION ON STATES.—No State or political 
subdivision of a State shall exercise its power of eminent 
domain, or allow the exercise of such power by any person 
or entity to which such power has been delegated, over 
property of a religious or other nonprofit organization by 
reason of the nonprofit or tax-exempt status of such orga-
nization, or any quality related thereto if that State or 
political subdivision receives Federal economic develop-
ment funds during any fiscal year in which it does so. 
(b) INELIGIBILITY FOR FEDERAL FUNDS.—A viola-
tion of subsection (a) by a State or political subdivision 
shall render such State or political subdivision ineligible 
for any Federal economic development funds for a period 
of 2 fiscal years following a final judgment on the merits 
by a court of competent jurisdiction that such subsection 
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