Unlocking Rural America's Potential

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington for yielding to me to speak on this important topic.

Most Americans can agree that the Federal Government is very good at creating regulations and making what should often be a simple process extremely complicated. In recent years, Federal permitting regulations have been some of the most overbearing and burdensome of regulations.

Landmark environmental protection laws, like the National Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act have become outdated and grown far too expansive. It is now nearly impossible to secure permits in a timely, efficient, and reasonable manner. From energy and mining projects to infrastructure development and forest management, burdensome and duplicative permitting processes have slowed or halted development throughout rural America.

Iowans are all too familiar with the overregulated government permitting process. One such example is the cumbersome and unworkable 2015 waters of the United States rule, also known as WOTUS.

Under the 2015 definition, the Federal government was given the authority to regulate almost any waters, including streams, ditches, ponds, and creeks.

In fact, the Federal Government would have the authority to regulate water on 97 percent of the land in Iowa. Let me repeat that: 97 percent of the land in Iowa. This left farmers, ranchers, landowners, and businesses to face confusion and burdensome restrictions on how to use their own property. WOTUS drastically expanded the jurisdiction over bodies of water like streams and ponds that the Clean Water Act never intended to regulate.

Instead of burdening private citizens with confusing and ambiguous standards that could end up costing them thousands of dollars, we should work to ensure that the Federal Government's clean water efforts are focused on clearly defined bodies of water.

WOTUS hurt American farmers, ranchers, landowners, and businesses, it caused confusion, and it hindered economic development.

To help rural America, the Trump administration issued the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule, also known as NWPR. The NWPR is much more workable and keeps our water and land clean without destroying businesses in the process.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration is taking steps to revoke the 2020 NWPR and return to the 2015 WOTUS rule. Reverting back to terrible policies such as the WOTUS rule would have an extreme Federal overreach and would significantly harm small businesses and cripple our country's economic recovery.

The Trump administration also took steps to streamline processes under the National Environmental Protection Act to improve the ability for individuals and businesses to build, improve, and maintain infrastructure by facilitating more efficient, effective, and timely NEPA reviews by Federal agencies.

With our economy on the mend, the Biden administration should not be considering unnecessary and overly burdensome government regulations.

Reverting back to these policies represents a blatant, unconstitutional power grab aimed at taking Federal control over States in a way that threatens the rights of farmers, ranchers, and all other landowners in Iowa and across our great Nation. We need to let people do their jobs and cut back on the incredible number of Federal regulations in the permitting process.

We can protect our Nation's waterways and make improvements to infrastructure without burdensome regulations. In Iowa and in rural communities throughout the country, we recognize that farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists, and that bureaucratic red tape does not help us grow, prosper, protect our water and our land.

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