Water Rights Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Chairman, people need to understand exactly what is going on here. The U.S. Forest Service and other Federal agencies have begun demanding that privately-owned businesses surrender their long-held water rights simply as a condition of receiving routine renewals in their special use permit so that they can continue to operate on public land.

This is a radical departure from more than 100 years of Federal deference to State law on this issue. It amounts to an uncompensated taking and is a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, and it is an affront to State law, under which the Federal Government must acquire water rights through the proper channels as would any other user.

Now, there are 121 ski areas on Federal public lands that are affected by this practice; 14 of them are in my district. These businesses rely on their water rights for snowmaking. They use this water as collateral for financing to build and maintain their facilities and for supplying water to the local communities they support.

In 2011, the Forest Service issued a directive that would effectively take these private property rights without compensation, in violation of State law, while jeopardizing these enterprises all together and all the direct employment, spinoff economic activity, and tax revenues that they provide.

This involved far more than ski resorts. Our Subcommittee on Water and Power has also received reports of similar tactics directed against farm and ranch operations that rely on State-recognized water rights for irrigation and stock watering.

Mr. Tipton's bill simply directs Federal agencies to stop perverting what should be a routine permitting process into an excuse to extract long-held water rights from private owners.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Chairman, this amendment creates two different classes of citizens: ski resorts and everybody else.

It leaves the portion of the bill that protects ski resorts from being forced to relinquish their water rights as a condition of continuing to operate in the Federal forests, and that is good, but then it creates a tier of second class citizens.

Unless you own a ski resort, you are fair game for the same demands by these Federal agencies to either give up your water rights or be forced out of business.

For example, our subcommittee heard testimony from Randy Parker. He is the CEO of the Utah Farm Bureau. He told us that the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have threatened to force farmers that have grazing allotments to give up their water rights as a condition of continuing to use the public lands.

In some cases, these are permits that family businesses have held for generations. The water rights are accorded to them under State law. The Federal Government has no right to usurp that law or to force anybody into the Hobson's choice of closing their business or surrendering their water rights.

This amendment is an affront to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, as well as to the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. These rights are fundamental constitutional rights that are unalienable for every American, not just those who happen to operate ski resorts.

Let's not take the Orwellian position that all Americans are equal, but some are more equal than others.

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