The Patriot Post® · House Passes Bill to Curb EPA Power Grab

The Republican-controlled House passed the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act as an effort to rein in a power hungry EPA. Specifically, the bill seeks to add definition to the Clean Water Act, which the EPA, especially under Barack Obama, has interpreted as giving it wide power to regulate everything. The EPA wants to expand the law’s reference to “waters of the United States” to include everything from the navigable water ways to the large mud puddle on a remote ranch. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY), one of the bill’s cosponsors, explains: The EPA “would redefine the scope of federal power under the Clean Water Act, creating jurisdiction over almost all physical areas with a connection to downstream navigable waters. This would put features such as ditches, natural or man-made ponds, flood plains, and prairie potholes, among others, under federal control. I believe it would directly contradict prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions and is based on incomplete scientific and economic analyses.” Make no mistake – the EPA is only using science and the environment to justify its power grabs.