The American Heritage Rivers Initiative is just a fancy name for federal zoning.
"The American Heritage Rivers Initiative was quietly announced in the pages of the Federal Register just a year ago," recalls Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center in a recent issue of his DeWeese Report. "Normally, the Clinton Administration marks good, new policy initiatives with great fanfare and White House ceremony," he observes. "Not this time."
DeWeese points out that the President delayed announcing the initiative "until Congress had left town for the Easter recess. Then the Administration planned to allow only three weeks of public discussion on the issue before rushing it into policy." Why so sneaky? "The American Heritage Rivers Initiative represents one of the greatest federal land grabs of all time," DeWeese explains. "It is a bold move to literally impose federal zoning and federal control over local development and the use of private property."
That is not how Clinton and company describe the measure, needless to say. "The Administration has said that the new program won't cost a dime," DeWeese relates, "that it is purely voluntary, and that any community or property owner can get out of the plan 'just by asking.' However, not a single one of these statements is true," DeWeese charges. He estimates an annual cost of at least $5 million just to maintain the first ten federal managers who will "oversee and coordinate the assault of thirteen federal agencies, armed with truckloads of regulations, ready to invade the designated river communities."
Each of these so-called "River Navigators" will exert "complete control of every decision made concerning development around the river," DeWeese warns. "Communities which find themselves captive to the Initiative will see federal bureaucrats participating in every planning meeting, sitting in the back of city council meetings, approving or denying local community development plans."
DeWeese predicts that local officials "will find they have little say in local development matters that they were elected to oversee. For example," he suggests, "communities that want to tear down old eyesores and outdated buildings along the waterfront, in order to replace them with modern highrise structures, may find their plans blocked. "Historic Preservation' may be one of the cited reasons. Recreational use of the river may be curtailed," DeWeese continues. "No boating, no swimming, no fishing. 'Fisheries Restoration' and 'Watershed Management' may be the cited reasons. The bottom line," he concludes, "will be loss of local control over development and growth."
DeWeese emphasizes that "the entire program is illegal and unconstitutional. Congress is given the job of approving programs and providing funding," he observes. "But there have been no Congressional votes and no money appropriated for the American Heritage Rivers Initiative. The Clinton Administration is forcing the entire policy through Executive Order." DeWeese sees "a constitutional crisis of major proportions in the making. The Clinton Administration is making policy by ignoring Congress," he contends, "as Congressional leaders sit on their hands."
