is about prohibiting cities and towns from
enacting building codes, zoning rules, and
laws regarding property maintenance
Also, she is opposed to EPA regulations,
the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act,
and other "radical environmental control."
Here is a continuation of our partial transcript of the floor debate that happened on March 13th when House Bill 1412 received a vote from the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Rep. Kern's remarks are taken from a video of the floor debate that appears on the OKHouse.gov website.
Rep. Cory Williams: "Will your bill have any effect on municipalities' ability to do zoning, eminent domain, and things of that nature, as they see fit to help encourage pedestrian traffic and bicycle traffic and to lessen the impact the automobile is having on their particular community?
Rep. Kern: "Not unless they are doing it in coordination with say, ICLEI, the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives."
Rep. Floyd returned to her line of questioning about clearly identifying which NGO's are to be avoided by cities and towns under HB 1412. "So, how are we going to trace back?
Rep. Kern: "All a municipality, a city, a town has to do is look at the entities that are coming to them and do some basic research on them to see if they are affiliated with the Agenda 21."
Rep. Floyd: "So, if you have one of the larger metropolitan cities.... there's going to have to be someone who... I don't even know how this is going to work. They're going to have to visit with every single entity that wants to do business with the city ... Are they going to have to do a UN check on them?
Rep. Kern: "Well, a city lawyer could do this easily. Or a secretary could do it easily to find out whether or not the entity they are dealing with is affiliated in any way with the Agenda 21."
"They Put a Lot of Pressure on Them. They Encourage Them."
Rep. Rebecca Hamilton: "I'm really seriously trying to understand this.... Where does the statutory authority come from for the United Nations to interfere with what we're doing here in Oklahoma?"
Rep. Kern: "There is none, and yet they are doing it. And that's why we need to take action against this."
Rep. Hamilton: "By what mechanism are they doing it?"
Rep. Kern: "They're doing it by approaching our cities and asking them to become a part of ICLEI, the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives. They have to pay a fee to join. Oklahoma City, Edmond, Guthrie, I believe, Norman, Tulsa have already joined it. They pay a fee, and then that organization which is affiliated with Agenda 21, the UN Sustainable Development, then begins giving policies and guidelines to those towns and cities, encouraging them, and asking them to implement them and even checking up on them to see if they are doing so."
Rep. Hamilton: "So, it's voluntary for them to get into the organization. If they aren't doing it, what's the punishment? What's the enforcement against the city or town?
Rep. Kern: "The punishment, I guess you could say, is they put a lot of pressure on them. They encourage them to do it. They tell them unless you do this, you know, you're not going to be able to reach your goals for your city and town and everything, your farm areas.
"It's really, you know -- I'm with you. I have a little bit of a hard time getting my mind around why in the world are our cities and towns doing this when the end result is abusing the property rights of our citizens."
Rep. Cannaday: "If the cities that you mentioned here in Oklahoma are being inundated or being coerced into involvement that results in property loss or loss of property rights, aren't there specific laws in the municipalities and the state that prevents such violations of such property rights?
"What laws have been broken, what municipal codes have been broken as a result of this? Could you share that?"
Rep. Kern: "A lot of them have to do with building codes -- where you can build, where you can't build, how you're going to build, things like that. A property owner, they can't build on their own property because it doesn't meet the certain requirements that they're imposing upon them, and things like that."
Representative Cannaday asked for an elaboration of this point.
Rep. Kern: "Here's what i'm talking about. When the EPA starts saying dust is a pollutant, and you need to cut down on your pollutants. How in the world is any farmer, how is any rancher, going to meet that standard? They're not. so, We're not talking about normal safety standards that our state is doing. We're talking about radical environmental control issues that are going to put extreme hardships on you to maintain your property.
"It is happening all over the country, all over the world, and here in Oklahoma."
"They're Doing Research and They're Asking Questions"
Rep. Cory Williams noted that Rep. Kern has a tendency to speak about unnamed organizations and agencies that are supposedly responsible for implementing the UN Agenda 21 program.
Rep. Williams: "I'm just curious who 'They' are?"
Rep. Kern: "Well, a lot of the 'they' are people from the government, from the EPA, people who are working to implement the, uh, the species endangered act, different acts like that -- the Clean Air Act, people who work for those kinds of -- to implement those kinds of laws.
"They're coming and they're doing research and they're asking questions and seeing if you are abiding by their regulations which are extremely hard to meet and getting more radical every day."
Rep. David Perryman: "Why is this necessary if the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma already absolutely and adequately provides [protection against violations of property rights]?"
Rep. Kern: "You are absolutely right. Our Constitution does, as does the U.S. Constitution, protect our property rights. Nevertheless, it is happening. And that's why we need to, if you will, kick out, or make sure we don't let come in to our state those entities that are subverting the constitution.
"The UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development program is contrary to the U.S. Constitution and the Oklahoma State constitution, and that's why we need this bill."
Rep. Perryman: "Based upon what you said today, how can my building inspector for a small municipality in Southwest Oklahoma know that the photograph that it takes does not violate what you've talked about... and will not be a party to a violation of someone's rights?"
Rep. Kern: "Only if his taking that picture is to be used to impose some environmental regulations upon that citizen in a way that hinders them being able to maintain their property, is it wrong.
"Only if they are doing it because they are affiliated with ICLEI or one of these other key NGO's that are a part of the Agenda 21 program."
"I Know It Sounds Weird."
Following the questions, each side was offered 10 minutes to debate the proposition. Rep. Mike Shelton delivered a stinging denunciation of HB 1412. He ridiculed the notion that cities and towns in Oklahoma are under the thumb of the United Nations.
For her part, Rep. Kern defended her bill in terms of the supposed threat from the United Nations as well as the alleged involvement of various government agencies.
Rep. Kern: "This is not a conspiracy theory. it is something that is happening in our country. It is happening in our state. Unfortunately, it is happening all over the world.
"This program, the UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development, is all about taking our private property away from us, putting us in what they call 'stack and packs' so we don't have our freedoms, we have to live in certain places. I know it sounds weird, but -- hey -- its true."
"And its about our sovereignty. The representative from over there, from South Oklahoma City, I think it was, said, 'What authority does the UN have to do this?' They don't, and that's what's so upsetting is that they are doing it to us, and we are letting them do it."
"This bill is about protecting property rights.... This bill is to protect our freedoms. And not only, as I said, is it our property rights that are going to be violated, but our national sovereignty.
"You look at the UN webpage. It is all about establishing a one world government. And I want to be an American, folks."
"Ranchers in our own state are having people show up at their doors wanting to take pictures. Why?
They want To see if they are violating The Wetlands Act ... to see if they are violating the Endangered Species Act."
"All across the country things are being done that are hurting farmers and ranchers and those of us even living in urban areas are being impacted by it.
"It's in our government, and we need to be aware of it.... This is not a joke. It's very real."
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