Richard Schok

Richard Schok - Family Owned Business in Fairbanks, Alaska

Mr. President, I’d like to thank you for the invitation to speak and bring much-needed attention to the reform to the rulemaking process used by the regulatory agencies.

I operate a family-owned business in Fairbanks, Alaska.  We purchased some land for our business about 20 years ago so we could move operations out of town to the new facility and expand our facilities.  We’ve spent the better part of 10 years and over $300,000 fighting with the regulatory agencies over the arbitrary and capricious nature of the Army Corps of Engineers wetland designation and their use of the Alaska supplement versus the 1987 congressionally-mandated Wetlands Manual.

This is effort is also — this effort does not include the time and energy put forth by the Pacific Legal Foundation on our behalf.  I’d like to thank those folks as well.
The last straw for us is when we lost our appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court when they held that the agencies can make the regulations they want and require without congressional approval or oversight.
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I’m hopeful that the changes made today — with this executive order, other land owners will not be negatively impacted as we have.  Thank you again for this opportunity.