Congressional leaders, including U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, announced legislation last week that would thwart broader governmental power to seize private land.

The legislation is a direct response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling about eminent domain.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that a Connecticut city can take private property and give it to another private party based purely on economic interests. The decision in the Kelo v. City of New London case sent shock waves through property rights groups across the country, including in Western Virginia.

Members of Congress, including Goodlatte, have introduced the Strengthening the Ownership of Private Property Act. It would prevent governments from taking property from one private party and giving it to another.

Goodlatte will be in the thick of the debate over the legislation. It's been referred to the House Agriculture Committee that he chairs. Goodlatte said Saturday that the committee will have a hearing on the STOPP Act when Congress reconvenes in September.

Goodlatte said there's no doubt that the act is a broad-based, bipartisan attempt by Congress to remedy what it believes is a bad ruling by the Supreme Court.

Of Kelo, Goodlatte said: "This appalling decision strikes a serious blow to the core values of our nation, and has far-reaching implications."

The STOPP Act, in its current form, would be wide-reaching and would strip federal funding from localities that abuse eminent domain solely for economic purposes, he said. That would include not only projects that trigger the act, but potentially all federally funded initiatives a violator is pursuing at the time, such as projects financed by the Appalachian Regional Commission as well as other federal departments.

The STOPP Act also would make states and localities subject to the Uniform Relocation Act, which provides fair market value and moving expenses for homeowners relocated by abuses. Virginia already applies the Relocation Act.

Critics of the Kelo ruling say governments must act now to deflect the federal court decision or it will give government officials far too much power to take private property.

Governments already had the power of eminent domain to take private property with compensation for public uses such as roads, schools, hospitals and utilities. However, the Kelo ruling now gives governments the ability to take property for nearly any reason, such as cities bulldozing private homes to make way for shopping malls, critics said.

Nancy McCord of Christiansburg is president of the Virginia Property Rights Coalition, a grass-roots network brought together to fight for fairness in Virginia's Eminent Domain Law. McCord was one of the people stunned by the Kelo decision.

She said Saturday that the STOPP Act, on its face, is encouraging.

"I'm happy that they moved so quickly to respond to this on the federal level," she said. However, McCord said she wants to know more about the legislation, including how it would determine an abuse.

The fallout from the Kelo decision is mushrooming nationwide. A New York Times story Saturday detailed how some cities and towns are trying to take advantage of the broader eminent domain powers set forth in Kelo, while other governments are doing the opposite.

Virginia legislators already have said they plan to take up the issue during next year's General Assembly session and will likely debate a more limited state definition of public uses for eminent domain.

State Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, said he's received feedback from some of his constituents who worry that the Kelo decision could disenfranchise minorities and take advantage of the poor.

A government's power to take land is a pertinent issue in Virginia, which is the only state with independent cities. Those cities, such as Roanoke, are prohibited from annexing new land, which means they often can pursue major new projects only through redevelopment. That can lead to their invoking of eminent domain powers.

Roanoke last used eminent domain to complete its downtown railwalk projects several years ago. The city argued that the railwalk was a park - an acceptable public use under Virginia eminent domain law - and a judge agreed.