UPDATE: House of Representatives Passes #DitchTheRule Legislation

Chairman Lucas posted this
photo of HR 5078 today from the House
floor where the bill was passed.

For a while now, the ag community has been discussing a rule proposed by the EPA in April that would redefine what constitutes a body of water under the Clean Water Act. More specifically, farmers have been concerned that the new rule would cast a much broader net and include such things as the ditches along fields or even part of fields that flood occasionally. Implementation of the rule would impose tighter regulations on farmers near these “bodies of water.” In fact, it may require a farmer to go through the time consuming process of obtaining a permit from the EPA before any work can be done in the field.

Hence, the #DitchTheRule campaign.

Back at the end of July, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed H.R. 5078 – Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2014. The text to that is here. We haven’t heard too much about this lately and the EPA was (and is) ready to move forward with this rule now that the comment period is over.

But today the House of Representatives voted and passed the H.R. 5078!

By a vote of 262-152, the House passed the legislation, which will now head to the Senate. If you remember from the end of July, the Senate has a similar piece of legislation that was proposed. You can find the status of that legislation, including the language of the bill, here. Whether it can pass there, per usual, is a completely different story, but at least the bill has already been proposed.

Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Frank Lucas, who was a co-sponsor of the legislation in the House, released this statement today:

“I am pleased the House approved this bipartisan, commonsense bill to block the EPA from expanding its control of our nation’s land and water resources.

“Whether it’s trying to regulate farm dust out of existence, milk as oil, or now treat ditches like major water tributaries, the EPA has demonstrated a hunger for power and a lack of understanding of how its actions impact America’s farmers and ranchers. The agency’s latest action would trigger an onslaught of additional permitting and regulatory requirements for our agricultural producers to protect not our great natural resources, but rather our backyard ponds.

“It is an underhanded way to harm American agriculture and threaten America’s food security. I urge Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring H.R. 5078 to the floor for swift Senate passage,” said Chairman Frank Lucas.

You can read his full press release here.

The legislation is extremely important. The EPA has attempted to expand the definitions of the Clean Water Act to the maximum. While most, if not all, farmers want to protect the waters around their farms, the permit process through the EPA can take a long time and could be very costly. In this business, when it’s time to do something – like planting – we have to get out there and do it. We don’t have the luxury of waiting until a government agency gives us the green light.

I will continue to follow this developing story and update when there is any new information. For more information, I explained the EPA’s water grab and (a little bit of) legalese here. Also be sure to check out the links within this article that reference my previous discussions.