WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two Wyoming politicians received presidential pens – and one American president gained a Sublette County cowboy’s best black hat – at Monday’s White House ceremony repealing four “federal power grab” regulations.

Among the four regulations being rolled back by Congress’s use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was HJ 44, which repealed the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “Planning 2.0” not-yet used and very controversial rule.

Sublette County rancher and county commissioner Joel Bousman said he was invited late on Friday, March 24, to attend the March 27 signing ceremony. Bousman is also the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) Western Interstate Region president – a role that earned him the invite.

“It was a last-minute thing,” Bousman said, and instead of taking his usual silverbelly cowboy hat, he decided to take his best black cowboy hat from The Cowboy Shop in Pinedale.

“I was a little bit concerned if it was even appropriate to walk into the Roosevelt Room of the White House with a hat on,” Bousman said in a phone call Wednesday. “I asked about the protocol and they said, ‘No, you’re fine; wear your hat!’”

Bousman clearly stood out behind Wyoming’s U.S. Sen. John Barrasso at the signing ceremony, which was important to both of them, after mingling beforehand with Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and various official staff.

During the ceremony, Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney received President Trump’s pen after he signed the CRA repeal of BLM Planning 2.0. She and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, standing to Bousman’s right, sponsored that CRA repeal.

Trump described Planning 2.0 to those gathered as a federal agency’s “power grab” that “gave it to Washington and that’s not good, never good … even though you’re all from Washington.”

As Trump handed Cheney his pen, he asked her about her father, former vice president Dick Cheney. And with his pen presentation to Barrasso, Trump thanked the senator for standing by him “through thick and thin.”

Visiting with Barrasso soon after, Bousman mentioned he had a “last-minute, informal” idea.

“I whispered to him, ‘I think I’ll offer to give the president my hat as a token of appreciation for rural ranchers in America,’” he said.

As national cameras were turned off and the ceremony wound down, Barrasso moved with Bousman toward Trump, who were unaware the senator’s iPhone was at the ready.

“It was not planned at all,” Bousman said, recalling he was a bit nervous.

“It was just a spur of the moment thing. I said, ‘Mr. President, I’d like you to have my hat as a token of’ … whatever it was I said, there was a lot of adrenaline.”

“He took my hat and turned to walk away, then he turned back and said, ‘Can I keep your hat?’ And I said, ‘Yes, Mr. President.’”

Barrasso snapped the moment on his iPhone and immediately tweeted out the photo of the cowboy-handshake exchange: “Great to be at signing today for overturning BLM 2.0 rule. Here is Sublette County Commissioner Joel Bousman giving his cowboy hat to @POTUS.”

“It’s pretty cool that Joel did that,” said Solon Bing at The Cowboy Shop. “Joel is an old-time cowboy and for an old-time cowboy to give away his hat – that’s pretty special.”

Wisely, Bousman had tucked his newly minted business card – made up in a hurry at Office Outlet – inside the hatband so the White House now has his number and correct email address.

Bousman went hatless for the rest of the weekend, without even a chance to buy a ball cap, he admitted, but Wyoming friends at another reception jokingly offered to take up a collection for Bousman’s replacement.

As for the BLM Planning 2.0 repeal, overall the state’s delegation praised Trump’s signing the bill, while conservationists around Wyoming and the West expressed disappointment. Planning 2.0 opponents argued it limited local and state input, while supporters stated it increased public –comment opportunities.

Bousman said he met with an Interior deputy secretary “with a lot of conversation about where to go from here” on Wednesday before winging back to Sublette County.

“Repeal of Planning 2.0 doesn’t mean (the BLM) can’t move forward,” he said. “It will just remain the same until they move forward.”

Bousman said it is “critical throughout the West” to have more local and state input – not from the top down – for BLM public land policy.

“It’s inconceivable that it takes 15 years to renew our grazing permit on the Upper Green,” he added. “… Those are the frustrations that weren’t addressed in Planning 2.0 – not even the state (BLM) directors were aware of what was in it.”