There’s a new bill circling the southeast U.S. that grants HUGE powers to an UNELECTED commission. The bill — which currently is being debated in Mississippi, Tennessee, AND Arkansas — is backed by a company called ‘RegionSmart’ which, Mississippi state Rep. Steve Hopkins tells Glenn, has ties to BlackRock. He details what exactly is inside this shocking bill and how voters can help to STOP it...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
STU: We had a caller, I think it was last Thursday, that called in about a bill that was kind of interesting, in Mississippi.
And seems problematic, in a lot of ways.
And it's talking about governor -- well, we actually have the representative on. Let's tell have him tell us about it. It's from the Mississippi Freedom Caucus. His name is Steve Hawkins.
He's a Republican state representative from Mississippi. Steve, how are you?
STEVE: Doing great. How are you guys?
GLENN: We're good. A listener called in and told us about something, that it was really disturbing, about a bill that is in up for -- a vote in Mississippi. And a couple of other, I think Tennessee. And maybe Alabama.
Arkansas. Okay.
What is this bill?
STEVE: Well, it's the Tristate Compact Bill. And I want to thank Rebecca for calling in, and bringing you guys' attention to this.
Because this is all about regionalism.
It's all about governor setting up quasi-governmental entities, that subvert the law.
So what it would actually do, is it would set up a commission, of people, five from Mississippi. Five from Tennessee. Five from Arkansas. On a commission, that is unelected people, who could make decisions, without government oversight. They're not subject to the open policy. Open door policies.
Or transparency laws.
They could issue eminent domain orders. They could say take people's property, to be able to do whatever they want to do.
So the -- the business, the company that's behind all this is Region Smart.
But it's the most heinous piece of legislation, that I've seen in my seven years here in the Mississippi legislature.
GLENN: So do we know anything about Region Smart? Who are they?
STEVE: We are finding out more than we could ever have asked for. These guys have ties to the Urban Land Institute. And a company called BlackRock.
GLENN: Uh-huh.
STEVE: And all of this, Glenn -- all of this goes back. We believe. To the Clinton era -- Clinton did an executive order.
I think it was back in 1978. Where sustainable development. Encouraging public/private partnerships, and shift from elected officials, to appointed agencies.
Well, you fast forward, now you have this infrastructure bill, coming out. And there's millions of dollars, set aside from compacts.
Well, that's what this bill would do. It -- it makes a compact, of unelected officials, in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, who can basically, they can tax. They can issue bonds.
And they can take your land by eminent domain. We have eminent domain law in Mississippi. And the law says that the government can't take somebody's property, and then give it to somebody, or a private corporation, within ten years.
Well, this would be subvert that law.
Because it's giving them the power to do it. And they're unelected.
GLENN: I have to -- I have to ask you. I mean, first of all, Steve, thanks for being on this.
Thanks for think the chair of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus.
But I can't imagine any person, who is actually representing the people, voting for this.
This is insane. When -- if somebody comes and says, oh, by the way, eminent domain, you'll lose your house.
Here's the money for it. And you have to move.
Those -- those legislators are going to be called by those constituents and say, hey, you have to stop this.
When they find out, that those legislators voted for these people who are not elected. Who, as you say, don't have any transparency.
And they are just developing something that God only knows what it's going to be.
And most likely you will be a renter, not an owner, if I know BlackRock at all.
Those people will be torn apart.
Who is for this in the House and Senate?
STEVE: Well, believe it or not, the original House author is Senator David Parker from DeSoto County, which is in the compact, DeSoto County, Mississippi.
And the explanation wasn't thorough. Needless to say. So it passed the Senate, unanimously.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
STEVE: Well, by the time it gets to the House. You know, we had some red flags immediately.
We started digging into it, immediately. And pushing back on it, once we saw in it.
The initial explanation in the Senate, doesn't cover any of this stuff.
So we -- you know -- and I want to thank Andy Roth, from the Freedom Caucus network. That we're a part of, for helping us, to be able to dig through all this stuff.
Because as a member of the state, Freedom Caucus network. We have the bill. We have people helping us, dig through and find a lot of this information. And background.
And we were able to tie, like I said, these people to the Urban Land Institute. To BlackRock.
And like I said, it's scary, because you're basically giving all this power to this commission. Of people.
Now, Glenn, you know. This is why we're elected. Because we can be held accountable for bad decisions. Well, this would give cover to bad politicians, where they could -- they could just say, hey, you guys just make that decision. And I just want to be the good guy, on all the good stuff.
GLENN: Correct.
STEVE: And you guys go ahead and do that. And it gives cover to where bad politicians.
GLENN: So Regions Smart ULI, is -- was a part of the equitable development challenge event.
It was held in Memphis, showed the group to be Black Lives Matter supporters.
They trained on racial equity. Wealth gap. Cultural sensitivity. The 1619 Project. And implicit bias tests. So they are not necessarily a friend of our Constitution.
The odds that -- just for a minute.
Is this close to passing in any of these three states, and what do people do?
STEVE: Well, we need people. You can go to our website. FreedomCaucus.ms. That's FreedomCaucus.ms.
And we have a form on there, where people can use the form to email the representatives. We need people to contact the speaker of the House, the chairman of the work force development committee, and all the representatives. And plead with them, to vote no on this.
The deadline is tomorrow night, midnight.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
STEVE: So if it isn't brought up. It will die on the calendar. So we just need this thing to die on the calendar. And not even be brought up for a vote.
GLENN: Okay. And this is happening in Tennessee. As well?
You know what is really insidious about this. Is who wrote this bill? Because they're all the same, are they not?
STEVE: Exactly.
We found something that said that tied Region Smart. Some of the money behind this, was used to write the bills. So the bills have to be exactly the same in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
So it looks like Region Smart paid to have the bill written.
GLENN: Unbelievable.
Steve, thank you for everything you're doing. Will you just keep us up to speed, and let us know what happens?
STEVE: Absolutely, Glenn. Thank you for having the time to have me on.
GLENN: Oh, you bet. Mississippi state representative, Steve Hopkins. Chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus.
We're talking about a bill in three different states. And I'll bet you, that this thing is -- I'll bet you, this is everywhere.
I'll bet you, they're doing something like this, in other regions.
Start looking for this -- start looking for this group.
I'm trying to remember what the name of the group is. Stu, did you see this?
Yeah. Region Smart. Now, they may have something else.
But look for -- look for Region Smart.
And see if any of these are in your state. Be on the lookout.
These guys are not going to give up, without a fight.
They're not.
And we think we're on top of it. We don't -- we're in a different kind of war.
We are in a different kind of war.
They are going around, every way they can.
To cut the -- the circulation of the Constitution. Off.
STU: Yeah. So how do you -- how do you gauge all of this outgoing? As you point out, it's consistent with the stuff that we fear from the Great Reset, that's happening with Russia.
However, you know, Russia is an aggressive actor. And, you know, you look back at some of the really bad things happening in history. And if this sort of stuff went on, when those things were going on. Maybe we would have minimized the impact. It would have been great if IBM wasn't helping --
GLENN: Yeah. It is. It is. It would have been.
STU: It would have been a better outcome.
GLENN: Correct.
And so why wouldn't our Founders, why didn't people back then, just stop these corporations from doing that?
STU: Well, I mean, stopping them is one thing.
Right? But them doing it on their own. Is another.
GLENN: Uh-huh. Finding a way to do it.
STU: Wouldn't we want IBM to say, we're not doing business with these people.
GLENN: Yeah. We would.
STU: Wouldn't that be great?
GLENN: But IBM did do that. They just let their arm in Europe, do it.
STU: Right. That's true.
GLENN: So they were just doing it in a crafty way. That's what always happened.
Look, you can't -- ends justify the means.
If we can stop him, from -- from doing what he's doing in Ukraine, and it means cobbling together, and launching The Great Reset, should we do it?
STU: Well, we don't want The Great Reset to hit the globe.
GLENN: Right. But that's what's going to happen. I guarantee it.
I guarantee it. This is The Great Reset, in action. You're watching it.