Rob Bishop: “When the ranking member was speaking, he quoted from the bill and said: This does not limit the Secretary's right, nor…”

“When the ranking member was speaking, he quoted from the bill and said: This does not limit the Secretary's right, nor does it expand the Secretary's right. So he said then, What does it actually do? What it does is very simple. It stops the Federal Government from hurting people. This came to view in the Federal Government trying to take away water rights from ski resorts, and not just in Colorado. It was all ski resorts. As I have said repeatedly, the ski resorts in Utah are far more significant and far better than the ski resorts in Colorado. It affects all of us. It is not just limited to ski resorts. We also found out these same tactics have been used by BLM and other entities to affect farmers and ranches, same concept, same area. So what the Tipton bill is trying to do is solve the problem for everybody, not just for a few people. Even people in the East who have water rights will be protected by this bill, whether they recognize that or not. I want to introduce you to a guy by the name of Tom Lowry. He came to our committee to testify about what they were doing. This is a person, as soon as he got his ranch, the Federal Government--the BLM in this case--started to attack his private water rights. It took him $800,000 in legal fees to go through the system to try and protect his rights. He eventually got to the Idaho Supreme Court and won, where the Supreme Court said: You are right, the Federal Government was wrong, they have to back up.…”