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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) The following is a news release by North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem:
President Trump signed an executive order directing the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Army Corps Engineers to review their rule defining “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS Rule) under the Clean Water Act.
“The current WOTUS Rule was one of many attempts by the previous administration to expand federal reach over issues that are primarily reserved to the States,” said Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. “I am pleased that the president has instructed the federal agencies to revise or rescind this unlawful rule,” he continued.
The highly unpopular WOTUS Rule is the subject of multiple lawsuits seeking to vacate it, including a lawsuit led by Stenehjem filed in federal district court in North Dakota. North Dakota and the 11 other states participating in the lawsuit argued that the EPA’s rule wrongly broadened federal authority by placing the management of a majority of water and land resources in the hands of the federal government, and that the burdens created by the new EPA requirements on waters and lands would be harmful to the States and would negatively affect farmers, developers, and landowners.
Although there has been no ruling yet on the merits, courts have stopped the EPA from implementing the WOTUS Rule. In the North Dakota case, Judge Erickson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rule from taking effect. In his order, he agreed that North Dakota and the other states were “likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the EPA has violated its grant of authority.” Shortly after, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals similarly blocked the federal agencies from implementing the rule during the litigation.
“I look forward to working with the federal agencies on developing a rule that makes sense, complies with the Clean Water Act, and recognizes states’ rights to control their own water resources,” said Stenehjem.
Stenehjem and other Attorneys General attending the winter meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, DC, met with President Trump at the White House this morning.
The following are news releases by North Dakota’s Congressional Delegation applauding the decision by President Trump to overturn an Obama Administration executive order to eliminate the Waters of the U.S. rule known as (WOTUS)
WASHINGTON — Senator John Hoeven today released the following statement after the president signed an executive order to eliminate the Obama Administration’s Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. The president’s order begins the process of undoing the regulation. Hoeven worked to defund the rule in 2016 and 2017, and it was put on hold by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“The Obama Administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule was a regulatory overreach that would have placed unnecessary burdens on farmers, ranchers and other small businesses in North Dakota and across the nation,” said Hoeven. “The president’s executive order starts the removal of the Obama rule and ensures that we support economic growth, provide regulatory certainty and respect states’ rights.”
President Trump’s executive order directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers to rescind or revise the Obama Administration’s WOTUS rule to ensure that it promotes economic growth, minimizes regulatory uncertainty and upholds the Constitutional role of states, while ensuring that the nation’s waters are kept free from pollution.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Hoeven worked to prohibit the EPA from implementing the rule in 2016 and 2017. In November, Hoeven also worked with his colleagues to pass a Resolution of Disapproval to repeal the rule, however the Obama Administration vetoed the measure in January.
The following is a news release by North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp was invited to the White House to join the president as he signed an executive order effectively undoing the previous administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule—an over-reaching policy that Heitkamp has long pushed back against to protect North Dakota farmers and ranchers.
Heitkamp negotiated and helped introduce a strong bipartisan bill in 2015 to do away with the Waters of the U.S. rule. The bill offered a compromise fix by scrapping the harmful rule and sending it back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requiring the agency to take into account the concerns of farmers and ranchers whose livelihoods could be impacted given the scope of the rule. Heitkamp will continue to push Congress to pass legislation to undo the Waters of the U.S. rule. If passed, such legislation would go into effect immediately, while the new executive order—though a needed step—still has to go through the rulemaking process.
“After working with North Dakota farmers and ranchers for years to stop this unworkable EPA rule, the president’s action today shows our concerns have been heard loud and clear,” said Heitkamp. “Now it’s time for Congress to step up and do its job by giving EPA direction on what water is jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act—and that’s what the bipartisan bill I helped introduce requiring EPA to redo this rule would accomplish. Water is everywhere in North Dakota, from Prairie Potholes to the Missouri River. That’s why this unworkable federal rule—which creates uncertainty about the waters EPA can regulate—would hit our family farmers and rural communities so hard. Farmers and ranchers need certainty, and I’ll continue fighting for our rural communities in the U.S. Senate.”
Earlier this month, the Agricultural Retailers Association recognized Heitkamp with its “Legislator of the Year” award, specifically praising her work to fix the over-reaching Waters of the U.S. rule and noting how the rule would hurt producers, retailers, and rural communities in North Dakota and across the country.
Heitkamp is committed to finding solutions that provide lasting relief and certainty to the communities in North Dakota. After months of working to construct a solution that would give farmers and ranchers lasting relief from the Waters of the U.S. rule, Heitkamp helped introduce the bipartisan, pragmatic Federal Water Quality Protection Act in April 2015 with U.S. Senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, and John Barrasso of Wyoming to make sure the EPA addresses the concerns of the farmers, ranchers, and small businesses impacted by the rule.
Just two months after its introduction, the bill passed in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Although the bill fell two votes short of moving forward in the Senate, Heitkamp has worked with her Republican and Democratic colleagues to try to find a deal to fix the rule and pressed the previous administration about how the rule is unworkable during a U.S. Senate hearing just last year.
Continuing her efforts to make sure the concerns of agricultural and small business workers are heard, Heitkamp brought U.S. Senator Donnelly to North Dakota in September 2015 to talk with agriculture, civic, and business leaders about the challenges they will face as a result of the rule.
The following is a news release by North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Kevin Cramer issued the following statement after President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to begin the unwinding of the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule:
Cramer said, “Once again, thanks to our President – a man of action – farmers and landowners can breathe a sigh of relief today as the Trump Administration begins the process of unwinding this harmful rule. Through ordering the dismantlement of Obama’s overreaching Waters of the U.S. rule, President Trump has fulfilled another campaign promise. This rule is one of the easiest examples of the Obama Administration’s overreach as we heard of vast swaths of land from pothole to pothole being usurped under federal control. I’m encouraged by President Trump’s review of the rule.”