John Rich Named Special Envoy for American Landowners, Vows to Fight Regulatory Burden

Lorrie Boyer

Reporter

“Goals are to hear from American landowners and help them however I can. They're all different, you know, they're they're all they all have different things going on and different entities involved, and my job is to get to know them, learn about the situation, and try to orchestrate a defense on their behalf. So, yes, my job is to represent your average, everyday landowner to the federal government, whether it's an EPA situation, interior forestry, HUD, USDA, doesn't matter.”

Rich says that he and his team are working to reverse and undo several regulations put into place by the Biden administration.

“I think probably 50% of Secretary Rollins' day is spent doing nothing but going through and reversing regulations on farmers and ranchers. I mean that's one of the main reasons why the American family farm and rancher can't be cash flow positive is because of the amount of regulations, the weaponization of regulations against our farmers.”

The best advocate for a landowner is a landowner, according to Rich, and he is encouraging producers to share their stories at usda.gov/lawfair. His team reviews submissions weekly and works through each case on a landowner's behalf.