I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6758 
To establish a uniform and more efficient Federal process for protecting 
property owners’ rights guaranteed by the fifth amendment. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 13, 2023 
Mr. LANGWORTHY (for himself, Ms. HAGEMAN, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. BACON, Mr. 
BAIRD, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Ms. TENNEY, Mr. 
VALADAO, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. WEBER of Texas, and 
Mr. ZINKE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To establish a uniform and more efficient Federal process 
for protecting property owners’ rights guaranteed by the 
fifth amendment. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defense of Property 
Rights Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
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(1) the private ownership of property is essen-
tial to a free society and is an integral part of the 
American tradition of liberty and limited govern-
ment; 
(2) the framers of the United States Constitu-
tion, in order to protect private property and liberty, 
devised a framework of Government designed to dif-
fuse power and limit Government; 
(3) to further ensure the protection of private 
property, the fifth amendment to the United States 
Constitution was ratified to prevent the taking of 
private property by the Federal Government, except 
for public use and with just compensation; 
(4) the purpose of the takings clause of the 
fifth amendment of the United States Constitution, 
as the Supreme Court stated in Armstrong v. United 
States, 364 U.S. 40, 49 (1960), is ‘‘to bar Govern-
ment from forcing some people alone to bear public 
burdens, which in all fairness and justice, should be 
borne by the public as a whole’’; 
(5) the agencies, in their efforts to ameliorate 
public harms and environmental abuse, have singled 
out property holders to shoulder the cost that should 
be borne by the public, in violation of the just com-
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pensation requirement of the takings clause of the 
fifth amendment of the United States Constitution; 
(6) there is a need to both restrain the agencies 
in their overzealous regulation of the private sector 
and to protect private property, which is a funda-
mental right of the American people; 
(7) the incremental, fact-specific approach that 
courts now are required to employ in the absence of 
adequate statutory language to vindicate property 
rights under the fifth amendment of the United 
States Constitution has been ineffective and costly 
and there is a need for Congress to clarify the law 
and provide an effective remedy; 
(8) certain provisions of sections 1346 and 
1402 and chapter 91 of title 28, United States Code 
(commonly known as the Tucker Act), that delin-
eates the jurisdiction of courts hearing property 
rights claims, complicates the ability of a property 
owner to vindicate a property owner’s right to just 
compensation for a governmental action that has 
caused a physical or regulatory taking; 
(9) current law— 
(A) forces a property owner to elect be-
tween equitable relief in the district court and 
monetary relief (the value of the property 
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taken) in the United States Court of Federal 
Claims; 
(B) is used to urge dismissal in the district 
court on the ground that the plaintiff should 
seek just compensation in the Court of Federal 
Claims; and 
(C) is used to urge dismissal in the Court 
of Federal Claims on the ground that the plain-
tiff should seek equitable relief in district court; 
(10) property owners cannot fully vindicate 
property rights in one court; 
(11) property owners should be able to fully re-
cover for a taking of their private property in one 
court; 
(12) certain provisions of sections 1346 and 
1402 and chapter 91 of title 28, United States Code 
(commonly known as the Tucker Act) should be 
amended, giving both the district courts of the 
United States and the Court of Federal Claims ju-
risdiction to hear all claims relating to property 
rights; and 
(13) section 1500 of title 28, United States 
Code, which denies the Court of Federal Claims ju-
risdiction to entertain a suit which is pending in an-
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other court and made by the same plaintiff, should 
be repealed. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this Act is to— 
(1) encourage, support, and promote the private 
ownership of property by ensuring the constitutional 
and legal protection of private property by the 
United States Government; 
(2) establish a clear, uniform, and efficient ju-
dicial process whereby aggrieved property owners 
can obtain vindication of property rights guaranteed 
by the fifth amendment to the United States Con-
stitution and this Act; 
(3) amend certain provisions of the Tucker Act, 
including the repeal of section 1500 of title 28, 
United States Code; 
(4) rectify the constitutional imbalance between 
the Federal Government and the States; and 
(5) require the Federal Government and States 
to compensate compensation to property owners for 
the deprivation of property rights. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act the term— 
(1) ‘‘agency’’ means a department, agency, 
independent agency, or instrumentality of the United 
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States or an individual State, including any military 
department, Government corporation, Government- 
controlled corporation, or other establishment in the 
executive branch of the United States Government 
or an individual State; 
(2) ‘‘agency action’’ means any action or deci-
sion taken, permanently or temporarily, by an agen-
cy that— 
(A) takes a property right; or 
(B) unreasonably impedes the use of prop-
erty or the exercise of property interests or sig-
nificantly interferes with investment-backed ex-
pectations; 
(3) ‘‘just compensation’’— 
(A) means compensation equal to the full 
extent of a property owner’s loss, including the 
fair market value of the private property taken 
and business losses arising from a taking, 
whether the taking is by physical occupation or 
through regulation, exaction, or other means; 
and 
(B) shall include compounded interest cal-
culated from the date of the taking until the 
date the agency tenders payment; 
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(4) ‘‘owner’’ means the owner or possessor of 
property or rights in property at the time the taking 
occurs, including when— 
(A) the statute, regulation, rule, order, 
guideline, policy, or action is passed or promul-
gated; or 
(B) the permit, license, authorization, or 
governmental permission is denied or sus-
pended; 
(5) ‘‘private property’’ or ‘‘property’’ means all 
property protected under the fifth amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, any applicable 
Federal or State law, or this Act, and includes— 
(A) real property, whether vested or 
unvested, including— 
(i) estates in fee, life estates, estates 
for years, or otherwise; 
(ii) inchoate interests in real property 
such as remainders and future interests; 
(iii) personalty that is affixed to or 
appurtenant to real property; 
(iv) easements; 
(v) leaseholds; 
(vi) recorded liens; and 
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(vii) contracts or other security inter-
ests in, or related to, real property; 
(B) the right to use water or the right to 
receive water, including any recorded lines on 
such water right; 
(C) rents, issues, and profits of land, in-
cluding minerals, timber, fodder, crops, oil and 
gas, coal, or geothermal energy; 
(D) property rights provided by, or memo-
rialized in, a contract, except that such rights 
shall not be construed under this title to pre-
vent the United States from prohibiting the for-
mation of contracts deemed to harm the public 
welfare or to prevent the execution of contracts 
for— 
(i) national security reasons; or 
(ii) exigencies that present immediate 
or reasonably foreseeable threats or inju-
ries to life or property; 
(E) any interest defined as property under 
State law; or 
(F) any interest understood to be property 
based on custom, usage, common law, or mutu-
ally reinforcing understandings sufficiently well- 
grounded in law to back a claim of interest; and 
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(6) ‘‘taking of private property’’— 
(A) means any action whereby private 
property is directly taken in part or in whole as 
to require compensation under the fifth amend-
ment to the United States Constitution or 
under this Act, including by physical invasion, 
regulation, exaction, condition, or other means; 
and 
(B) shall not include— 
(i) a condemnation action filed by the 
United States in an applicable court; or 
(ii) an action filed by the United 
States relating to criminal forfeiture. 
SEC. 5. COMPENSATION FOR TAKEN PROPERTY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—No agency, shall take private 
property in part or in whole except for public purpose and 
with just compensation to the property owner. A property 
owner shall receive just compensation if— 
(1) as a consequence of a decision of any agen-
cy private property (in part or in whole) has been 
physically invaded or taken without the consent of 
the owner; and 
(2)(A) such action does not substantially ad-
vance the stated governmental interest to be 
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achieved by the legislation or regulation on which 
the action is based; 
(B) such action exacts the owner’s constitu-
tional or otherwise lawful right to use the property 
or a portion of such property as a condition for the 
granting of a permit, license, variance, or any other 
agency action without a rough proportionality be-
tween the stated need for the required dedication 
and the impact of the proposed use of the property; 
(C) such action results in the property owner 
being deprived, either temporarily or permanently, of 
all or substantially all economically beneficial or pro-
ductive use of the property or that part of the prop-
erty affected by the action without a showing that 
such deprivation inheres in the title itself; 
(D) such action diminishes the fair market 
value of the property which is the subject of the ac-
tion by the lesser of— 
(i) 20 percent or more with respect to the 
value immediately prior to the governmental ac-
tion; or 
(ii) $20,000, or more with respect to the 
value immediately prior to the governmental ac-
tion; or 
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(E) under any other circumstance where a tak-
ing has occurred within the meaning of the fifth 
amendment of the United States Constitution. 
(b) BURDEN OF PROOF.—(1) The agency shall bear 
the burden of proof in any action described under— 
(A) subsection (a)(2)(A), with regard to show-
ing the nexus between the stated governmental pur-
pose of the governmental interest and the impact on 
the proposed use of private property; 
(B) subsection (a)(2)(B), with regard to show-
ing the proportionality between the exaction and the 
impact of the proposed use of the property; and 
(C) subsection (a)(2)(C), with regard to show-
ing that such deprivation of value inheres in the title 
to the property. 
(2) The property owner shall have the burden of 
proof in any action described under subsection (a)(2)(D), 
with regard to establishing the diminution of value of 
property. 
SEC. 6. JURISDICTION AND JUDICIAL REVIEW. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A property owner may file a civil 
action under this Act to challenge the validity of any agen-
cy action that adversely affects the owner’s interest in pri-
vate property in either the United States District Court 
or the United States Court of Federal Claims. This section 
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constitutes express waiver of the sovereign immunity of 
the United States. Notwithstanding any other provision of 
law and notwithstanding the issues involved, the relief 
sought, or the amount in controversy, each court shall 
have concurrent jurisdiction over both claims for monetary 
relief and claims seeking invalidation of any Act of Con-
gress or any agency action defined under this Act affecting 
private property rights. The plaintiff shall have the elec-
tion of the court in which to file a claim for relief. 
(b) STANDING.—Persons adversely affected by an 
agency action taken under this Act shall have standing 
to challenge and seek judicial review of that action. 
(c) AMENDMENTS TO TITLE 28, UNITED STATES 
CODE.—(1) Section 1491(a) of title 28, United States 
Code, is amended— 
(A) in paragraph (1) by amending the first sen-
tence to read as follows: ‘‘The United States Court 
of Federal Claims shall have jurisdiction to render 
judgment upon any claim against an agency for 
monetary relief founded either upon the Constitution 
or any Act of Congress or any regulation of an exec-
utive department, or upon any express or implied 
contract with an agency, in cases not sounding in 
tort, or for invalidation of any Act of Congress or 
any regulation of an executive department that ad-
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versely affects private property rights in violation of 
the fifth amendment of the United States Constitu-
tion’’; 
(B) in paragraph (2) by inserting before the 
first sentence the following: ‘‘In any case within its 
jurisdiction, the Court of Federal Claims shall have 
the power to grant injunctive and declaratory relief 
when appropriate.’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end thereof the following 
new paragraphs: 
‘‘(3) In cases otherwise within its jurisdiction, 
the Court of Federal Claims shall also have ancillary 
jurisdiction, concurrent with the courts designated in 
section 1346(b) of this title, to render judgment 
upon any related tort claim authorized under section 
2674 of this title. 
‘‘(4) In proceedings within the jurisdiction of the 
Court of Federal Claims which constitute judicial review 
of agency action (rather than de novo proceedings), the 
provisions of section 706 of title 5 shall apply.’’. 
(2)(A) Section 1500 of title 28, United States Code, 
is repealed. 
(B) The table of sections for chapter 91 of title 28, 
United States Code, is amended by striking out the item 
relating to section 1500. 
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SEC. 7. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. 
The statute of limitations for actions brought under 
this title shall be 6 years from the date of the taking of 
property. 
SEC. 8. ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND COSTS. 
The court, in issuing any final order in any action 
brought under this Act, shall award costs of litigation (in-
cluding reasonable attorney and expert witness fees) to 
any prevailing plaintiff. 
SEC. 9. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Either party to a dispute over a 
taking of property as defined under this Act or litigation 
commenced under this Act may elect to resolve the dispute 
through settlement or arbitration. In the administration 
of this section— 
(1) such alternative dispute resolution may only 
be effectuated by the consent of all parties; 
(2) arbitration procedures shall be in accord-
ance with the alternative dispute resolution proce-
dures established by the American Arbitration Asso-
ciation; and 
(3) in no event shall arbitration be a condition 
precedent or an administrative procedure to be ex-
hausted before the filing of a civil action under this 
Act. 
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(b) REVIEW OF ARBITRATION.—Appeal from arbitra-
tion decisions shall be to the United States District Court 
or the United States Court of Federal Claims in the man-
ner prescribed by law for the claim under this Act. 
SEC. 10. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to interfere 
with the authority of any State to create additional prop-
erty rights. 
SEC. 11. SEVERABILITY. 
If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by 
this Act, or the application of such provision or amend-
ment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconsti-
tutional, the remainder of this Act, the amendments made 
by this Act, and the application of the provisions of such 
to any person or circumstance shall not be affected there-
by. 
SEC. 12. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
The provisions of this Act shall apply to actions com-
menced on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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