Joni Ernst
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and U.S. Rep. David Young (R-IA) led members of Iowa’s congressional delegation this week in urging President-elect Donald Trump to abandon the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.
The WOTUS rule, which would expand federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA), would amount to an economic assault on small businesses, manufacturers and farmers, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the president-elect.
“These industries are the backbone of this country, especially in rural America. The election results signaled that Americans are ready for the last eight years of EPA’s power grabbing mentality to come to an end,” the lawmakers added.
Last year, resolutions of disapproval of WOTUS cleared the House and the Senate with bipartisan support.
Iowa’s Republican congressional representatives fully support CWA’s goal to address pollution in the nation’s navigable waters and to improve water quality through local-state-federal partnerships, the letter states, but WOTUS would expand federal jurisdiction more than Congress intended.
“Under the guise of protecting clean water, the current administration’s EPA is not just seeking to expand its jurisdiction over waters not originally covered under the CWA, but also on private land,” the lawmakers added.
For example, EPA would have the power to regulate activities on 97 percent of the land in Iowa under the WOTUS rule, they argued, leading to legal uncertainty, compliance burdens and increased costs.
The lawmakers encouraged Trump to scrap the WOTUS rule and also direct the EPA to craft a common-sense rule that clarifies the scope of the CWA.