Keep The EPA Out of Our Backyards

By now, many Missourians are aware of the proposed water rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States Army Corps of Engineers to vastly expand their power authority. When you get down to it, the EPA's rule means a bigger government will create more headaches while costing Missourians time and money for such things as building a home, a pond, or raising cattle.

In effect, our government will impose significant additional costs and burdens on property owners, farmers, and livestock producers to comply with requirements for thousands of small streams, ditches, ponds, and other isolated waters, some of which may contain little or no water.

I recently wrote to the EPA and the Corps asking leadership to withdraw its new water rule. And to find out how the EPA is going to impact small businesses in Missouri, last week the Small Business Committee I chair called on Blue Springs resident and former mayor Tom Woods, Owner of Woods Custom Homes, to testify on the proposed rule. Mr. Woods' message was clear: the EPA rule will have a significant impact on small businesses in Missouri and around the country. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association was also represented at the hearing to warn of harm to livestock producers.

The EPA's proposed rule is a classic example of regulatory overreach. Because the Obama Administration will bend its interpretation of the law and ignore the limits placed on it by Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution, I plan to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that will allow Congress to serve as a roadblock on how the Administration has been doing business.

We already know that the Obama Administration will stop at nothing to achieve its ideological, big government objectives. If property owners are forced to give up their rights now, we cannot realistically hope to get them back in the future.