My earlier posts on eminent domain reform since Kelo omitted reference to the federal government's reform efforts. In this post, I'm going to rectify that unfair omission. So here's a summary of the federal government's post-Kelo reform successes:

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[Insert sound of crickets chirping, grass growing, and paint drying].

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The above is a comprehensive summary of federal post-Kelo efforts because the feds have accomplished nothing of any no. On the first anniversary of Kelo, President Bush issued a completely ineffective executive order that seems to have been meant just for show. In 2005, Congress passed the Bond amendment, an almost equally futile gesture that has since expired (described on pp. 41-42 of this article). And that's it.

Such federal neglect of the issue is unfortunate. As I explained in a recent National Review article, there is actually a great deal that the president and Congress can do to curb harmful blight and economic development takings. Many blight and economic development condemnations are at least partially funded with federal grants; and some might not have been undertaken without them. Even if you believe that respect for state autonomy should prevent Congress from simply banning such takings, the federal government surely has the power to deny federal to funds to localities that use them.

The Property Rights Protection Act (discussed on pp. 38-41 of my forthcoming article on post-Kelo reform), which would have taken a step in that direction, passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly in 2005. It would have denied federal "economic development" funds to local governments that undertake economic development takings similar to that upheld in Kelo. But the PRPA was bottled up in the Senate under the Republican Congress. Efforts to resuscitate it in the new Democratic Congress have so far been even less successful. Recently, a new and somewhat better version of the PRPA has been introduced by Republican Representative John Sullivan. Whether Sullivan's effort meets with greater success than previous attempts remains to be seen. As a general rule, it's rare for any important measure to pass the House if it is introduced by a member of the minority party.