Tipton’s Water Rights Protection Act Passes House

WASHINGTON—The House passed a legislative package last night that includes Congressman Scott Tipton’s (CO-03) bill to uphold state water law and protect privately held water rights from federal takings and interference.

“Repeated attempts by federal land management agencies to interfere with private water rights, and circumvent state law, have put the ski community, grazers, municipalities and local businesses at risk of losing—without any compensation—the property they have developed, invested as much as hundreds of millions of dollars in, and rely on to survive,” said Tipton. “These private property rights are vital to the economic wellbeing of Colorado its western neighbors. It’s critical that we pass permanent protections to uphold long-held state water law and priority-based systems that have governed water rights in the Western U.S. for over a century.”

Tipton’s Water Rights Protection Act (H.R. 1830) was incorporated in its entirety under title 11 of the Western Water and Food Security Act (H.R. 2898), which passed the House in July of last year. That legislation—the Western Water and Food Security Act—was included in the House Amendment to S. 2012 - Energy Policy Modernization Act, making it the second time the Water Rights Protection Act (H.R. 1830) passed in the House this Congress. Learn more about H.R. 1830 HERE.