{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-questions-agency-heads-issues-critical-colorado", "Tipton Questions Agency Heads on Issues Critical to Colorado", "2014-09-10", "2014", "2014-09", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Director Ashe gives cause for optimism on sage grouse\nWASHINGTON\u2014Congressman Scott Tipton (CO-03) sought clarity from Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe on water rights and sage grouse during a pair of hearings today in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committees.\nIn the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry, Tipton pressed Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell for clarification on whether the agency is going to require the transfer of private water rights or inhibit the ability to use those rights under the proposed Groundwater Directive.\nTidwell stated that while the outright transfer of rights would not be required, the Forest Service still planned to require that water uses be tied to the land as a means to ensure that rights were not improperly transferred by permittees\u2014this despite Tidwell\u2019s own admission that there has never been a case where water rights have been improperly sold off or transferred. When the federal government strips away the ability to control private water rights\u2014as Tidwell is suggesting\u2014it\u2019s a violation of state water law and the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, the text of the Groundwater Directive instructs Forest Service employees to take actions that violate state law, the U.S. Constitution, and private property rights.[1]\n \n\t\u201cWhile Chief Tidwell continues to claim that the Forest Service is working to respect state water law and water rights, the Agency is moving forward with a Groundwater Directive, and other policies, that essentially tell the holders of these rights, \u2018okay, you can keep the title to the water right, but you can\u2019t decide how you want use your water\u2014that\u2019s now under the control of the federal government,\u2019\u201d said Tipton. \u201cIt\u2019s deeply disturbing that this Administration continues to say one thing on water rights, while consistently identifying and attempting to implement policies to gain control of the private water rights and blatantly violate long-held state water law and priority-based systems. The Forest Service could at least be honest about it\u2014call it the taking that it is, but don\u2019t try to hoodwink those who are facing a loss of their water rights, livelihood and private property. Water users need certainty, and they need a line of defense against the federal government\u2019s repeated attempts to infringe on their water rights, which is provided in H.R. 3189. I urge my colleagues over in the Senate to pay attention to what\u2019s going on here, and take up this bill.\u201d\n \nTipton passed legislation through the House with bipartisan support to protect water rights by prohibiting the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior from taking or infringing on private water rights without compensation, including through conditional use of permit. Learn more HERE.\nIn the House Committee on Natural Resources, Tipton questioned Fish and Wildlife Service Director Ashe on a potential Endangered Species listing of the Greater Sage Grouse. Once more, Ashe had no information for Tipton when asked about if the Agency had yet identified a species recovery goal for the grouse.\nHowever, there was some room for optimism at the hearing when, in response to questions from Tipton on what the Director learned when he visited Craig, CO earlier this year to survey the efforts underway to protect the grouse, Ashe replied that, \u201cWe saw great people, landowners that are great stewards of the land, working cooperatively with our people on the ground, and with great support from USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the State of Colorado. I saw really the kind of partnership and cooperative approach that it takes to conserve a bird like the sage grouse, which is why I can be optimistic that we have the chance to get to a \u2018not warranted determination\u2019 on the sage grouse. Because we\u2019ve got the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the USDA, all 11 states working collaboratively on that effort, so it really is an unprecedented level of effort that\u2019s going on.\u201d\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly frustrating that despite numerous requests from my office, and from local stakeholders, the Interior Department and Fish and Wildlife Service still have no measurable species conservation goal to work toward. Meanwhile state and local efforts have been underway for some time to preserve and recover the species, but without a measurable recovery goal. How do we know what constitutes recovery if the federal government won\u2019t give us the information we need in order to reach the goal?\u201d said Tipton. \u201cI do want to commend Director Ashe for his positive comments today on the efforts underway in Colorado on the sage grouse, and agree with him that what state and local stakeholders are doing is truly unprecedented. I trust that Director Ashe\u2019s comments were sincere and that we will be able to work together to achieve a \u2018not warranted determination\u2019 for the sage grouse.\u201d\n \n\n\t  \n\t\t[1] Specifically, the directive requires that \u201cmonitoring and mitigation appropriate to the scale and nature of potential effects is conducted, evaluated, and reported when authorizing a proposed use or Forest Service activity that has a significant potential to adversely affect NFS groundwater resources,\u201d and that the Forest Service \u201cConsider the effects of proposed actions on groundwater quantity, quality, and timing prior to approving a proposed use or implementing a Forest Service Activity.\u201d 2560.03(4)(a)(d).", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-questions-agency-heads-issues-critical-colorado"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.552528701722622, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}