Feenstra slams Biden Administration?s water rule reversal

by | Jul 6, 2021 | 5 Ag Stories, News

Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says the Biden Administration is looking at implementing burdensome regulations that would crush rural main street businesses.

In a recent interview with IARN, Feenstra reacted to the news that EPA is planning to roll back the Trump-era Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which replaced the Obama-era Waters of the US Rule (WOTUS).

?Initially, (Michael) Regan at EPA announced he?s undoing the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which replaced WOTUS as a smarter and more straightforward approach to defining our waters,? said Feenstra. ?WOTUS allowed the federal government to regulate 97% of our land and that was completely unnecessary.?

?I?m truly disappointed with Administrator Regan,? he continued. ?I had a one-on-one conversation about this about a month ago. He was also in the Fourth District where this was discussed, and I just feel he was not forthright in what he was going to do. At that time, he said we shouldn?t worry about it. Now, I?m very concerned about another hit to our farming community. I just hope these regulations aren?t so burdensome like they were under the Obama Administration.?

The Trump-era water rule will remain in place until EPA develops a new one, EPA said. In previous statements, EPA Administrator Michael Regan has said a new rule will not go directly back to the Obama Administration but that it also wouldn?t be the Trump version either.

Last month, Iowa Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley introduced the Define WOTUS Act, which is a bill to legislatively define the ?waters of the United States,? and make a reasonable, workable definition of the term permanent.