(NDAgConnection.com) – Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Congressman Sam Graves (R-Mo.), in filing an amicus brief in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which is currently pending before the Supreme Court and focuses on the scope of the “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) definition under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The amicus brief was signed by a total of 201 members of Congress, and is the latest in Hoeven’s efforts to protect private property rights and prevent the administration from reimposing overly burdensome and costly mandates under a new WOTUS definition.

“We support policies that protect the environment while also ensuring that States retain their traditional role as the primary regulators of land and water resources, and that farmers, manufacturers, small business owners, and property owners like the Petitioners in this case can develop and use their land free of over-burdensome, job-killing federal regulations. These entities need certainty about the scope of ‘waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act, and the Court’s endorsement of the Scalia test would provide that long-needed certainty,” the brief states