House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) joined the group of Republican lawmakers urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to abandon their proposed “waters of the United States” rule.
Graves said the agencies have failed to examine the impacts of the proposal on small businesses.
“The EPA should have conducted a Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) panel to get input from small entities and performed an initial regulatory flexibility analysis (IRFA) assessing the impacts of the proposed rule on small entities as required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA),” Graves wrote in a comment letter. “Unfortunately, the agencies did not do so and instead engaged in arbitrary and capricious rulemaking.”
Even for large businesses with access to lawyers and engineers, Graves claims deciphering the “inherent vagueness” of the proposed rule would be difficult. For small businesses and other entitites, he said it “will be well nigh impossible.”
“As it now stands, the proposed rule will clarify little, lead to significant litigation (including challenges that might prohibit enforcement against small entities), and ultimately undermine the agencies’ mission of protecting the waters of the United States from degradation,” Graves wrote.
“The only logical course for the agencies is to rescind the proposal and reissue it after fully complying with the RFA so the end result will be a logical, non-arbitrary rule that actually clarifies definitions and protects the waters of the United States.”