By USEPA Environmental Protection Agency – Streams and Wetlands
Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, along with Indiana’s Mike Braun, introduced the Define WOTUS Act this week. The bill legislatively defines “waters of the United States,” and makes a definition of the term permanent.
Grassley and Ernst recently sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to express concerns over the Biden administration’s decision to roll back the previous administration’s Navigable Waters Protection rule.
Grassley states, “Adding more federal red tape for home builders during construction or to a farmer’s day-to-day decisions on the farm is government overreach.”
Braun of Indiana says, “Farmers and families need a reasonable, practical definition for WOTUS, and that’s why Congress should do its job and define the law.”
The EPA earlier this month announced intent to rewrite the Navigable Waters Protection rule.
American Farm Bureau’s Don Parrish said at the time, “this is not a fight about protecting water quality, because the Navigable Waters Protection rule does that, this is a fight over land use.”
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)