Providing for Congressional Disapproval of A Rule Submitted By the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency--Veto

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, that is absolutely right. I join my distinguished colleague from the State of Missouri, as well as my colleague from the State of Wyoming and our colleague from the State of Iowa.

This is an incredibly important issue. It is probably the No. 1 regulatory relief that all business sectors need. Starting with our farmers and ranchers, this is a huge issue. This crosses all sectors because this is a big-time overreach by the EPA, and it really affects all property owners. You are talking about private property rights that are at stake here.

There is a fundamental principle at stake in terms of how our government works, as well. The EPA has taken through its own regulatory fiat additional authority that it does not legally possess. It has done so under a legal theory that it has advanced called ``significant nexus.'' Essentially, it has gone beyond the jurisdiction it has, which is regulation with regard to navigable bodies of water, such as the Missouri River, for example, to, in essence, say it can now regulate all water wherever it finds it anywhere.

Now think about that. If part of the executive branch or a regulatory agency can unilaterally say, ``You know what, we are not just going to operate under our legislative authority; we are just going to take additional authorities that we don't legally have in order to do what we think is our job,'' then we have a fundamental problem because that defies the underlying concepts of the checks and balances of our government, where the legislative, judicial, and executive all offset each other in order to protect private property rights. That is absolutely what is at stake here.

Essentially, the EPA has set a rule where they can regulate water anywhere in any capacity. So if a farmer, after a rain storm, goes out and wants to move water in a ditch, or even an individual private property owner wants to do that, do they have to apply to the EPA for a permit? How do they know? To whom do they go? Are they going to get consistent rulings? Why in the world should they be subject to an agency without legislative authority, just deciding that they are going to have jurisdiction or authority in cases where they don't have it? It is a very important principle in terms of protecting private property rights as well as the fundamental fact that it has a devastating impact on farmers, ranchers, and every sector of our society.

I would turn back to my colleague from Missouri and ask him to touch on, maybe for just a minute, what we can do about it. We are on the floor today to have a vote, and I think we need to point out how important it is that our colleagues join us in making sure that we override this Presidential veto.

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