WASHINGTON (July 16, 2020) – Arizona federal lands rancher Jim Chilton today joined President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler on behalf of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the Public Lands Council (PLC) to celebrate modernization of environmental regulations including the Navigable Waters Protection Rule that replaced the ill-conceived 2015 Waters of The United States (WOTUS) rule earlier this year.

“Cutting the red tape set us free as private property owners.” Chilton said. “Our ranch has approximately 100 dry washes – these are washes with no water. The Corps of Engineers and EPA who wrote the Obama 2015 regulations ruled that any dry wash that had more than 12 inches of sand in the bottom became a water of the United States. It was outrageous. The 2015 rules and regulations were overreaching red tape and threatened me and other farmers, ranchers, businessmen, and land owners with the possibility of going to jail and facing huge fines. Thank you Mister President for the Navigable Water Protection Rule that you promulgated. It set us free. The heavy hand of government is no longer on our shoulders.”

President Trump was also joined at the White House by Idaho Governor Brad Little, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, Joe Cambria of Cambria Truck Center, and Amy Johnson, a physician in Bedford, VA. Like Chilton, each of the attendees highlighted various regulatory improvements the Trump administration has made since 2015, including the replacement of WOTUS with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, streamlining transportation requirements, and improving technology and access to telehealth.