Reining in a Lawless EPA

The enduring natural beauty of our state combined with its growing productivity is a testament to Nebraskans’ shared commitment to conserving our land and resources. Despite these efforts, federal bureaucrats continue to issue onerous regulations which threaten jobs and economic growth, especially in rural America.

In mid-July, the House spent numerous late nights working on the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, known more simply as the Interior bill. This legislation sets the budget for the Department of the Interior and its related agencies, such as the Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

By passing this bill, the House used its power of the purse to block many damaging regulations and overreaches by the Obama administration. The bill’s overall funding levels are $1 billion below President Obama’s request for these agencies.

Notably, this is also the first Interior bill passed by the House in seven years, demonstrating the continued effort to return to regular order rather than depending on stopgap funding measures.

The Obama administration has issued some of its most burdensome unilateral regulations through the EPA, and this bill seeks to stop the assault on America’s farmers and ranchers. Despite President Obama’s request to increase EPA employment, the bill holds the EPA to its lowest staffing levels since 1989 and reduces funding by $164 million.

The bill blocks the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule, or WOTUS, which threatens private water rights by increasing the federal government’s regulatory jurisdiction to everything from ditches to prairie potholes. Not only would this rule impact farmers and landowners, but it would also impede the ability of local governments to make decisions for their communities.

Last year, I introduced a resolution to block WOTUS under an expedited process created by the Congressional Review Act. Companion legislation sponsored by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa passed the House and Senate, but it was unsurprisingly vetoed by President Obama. I am pleased the Interior bill continues the fight against WOTUS by prohibiting the administration from spending federal dollars on its implementation.

The bill also blocks the administration’s costly regulations on coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Supreme Court put a stay on these regulations earlier this year due to numerous legal challenges.

American Enterprise Institute analyst Benjamin Zycher used the EPA’s own model developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research to determine President Obama’s climate regulations would lead to a total temperature reduction of fifteen one-thousandths of a degree by 2100. Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation reports the regulations would cause an average loss of nearly 300,000 jobs and a total income loss of more than $7,000 per person.

Clearly, these misguided regulations would force Americans to pay a terrible price for negligible results. Congress remains committed to stopping them.

Reining in the regulatory overreach of the Obama administration is an ongoing challenge, but the Interior bill passed by the House is another important step toward protecting rural Americans. For more information on my efforts to block executive overreach, or to share your stories about how regulations have impacted you, please visit AdrianSmith.house.gov/RegulationRewind.