The Water Rights Protection Act, introduced in the House, could bring U.S. ranchers much-needed relief from ongoing efforts by the federal government to extort privately held water rights from law-abiding citizens, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. “It’s time to put a stop to federal strong-arming of ranchers by a government that owns the majority of the land for …
Stop Federal Water Extortion, Farm Bureau Says
Land managers in the West increasingly demand that ranchers who work federal land surrender their water rights to the government or get off the range. It’s extortion and a form of unconstitutional taking that simply has to stop, Randy Parker, Utah Farm Bureau’s vice president of national government affairs, told the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans. Legislation known …