Newsletter: Are you Against the EPA's Job-Killing Agenda?

Statement

Friends,

All across the country last week, we joined together to celebrate National Agriculture Day and recognize the tremendous impact America's agriculture community has on our daily lives. From the fields to our kitchen tables, to the clothes we wear and the energy we use, our farmers' work touches every corner of our country. I can't thank North Carolina's farmers and producers enough for their hard work to provide for their families, our nation and the world. It is also important to note that agriculture remains the number one industry in our state, boosting our economy by $78 billion and supporting nearly 650,000 jobs.

Unfortunately, the divide between what's right for rural America and the policies coming out of Washington continues to grow deeper. By constantly relying on executive power to pass more and more onerous rules and regulations, it's clear the Obama administration doesn't believe North Carolinians can tend to our land better than bureaucrats in Washington. Knowing this, I created the bipartisan Agriculture and Rural America Task Force to fight for rural America and rein in harmful government agencies like the bloated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Bureaucrats at the EPA sit in closed-door meetings and conjure regulation after regulation to spend more of our tax dollars and strong-arm their way into our local communities. Perhaps the most egregious EPA power grab I've seen since my time as your representative is the proposed "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule which would redefine navigable waters and grant the federal government jurisdiction over nearly all state and local waters.

Simply put, the EPA wants limitless control over virtually every body of water in North Carolina including irrigation ditches, farm ponds and streams. This is a tremendous threat to our private property rights.

I've heard from countless farmers and producers in our community who say the uncertainty surrounding this rule and its potential sweeping regulations would have a detrimental effect on their operations. In addition to cosponsoring legislation that would block the proposed rule, I joined a bipartisan group of my colleagues to request the House Appropriations Committee use the power of the purse to block the EPA and other federal agencies from implementing this harmful rule. I will continue to pursue every avenue available to protect family farms and put an end to this outrageous rule.

Another concern I've heard from our farmers is how to keep future generations on the farm. The death tax is bad Washington policy that crushes the profitability of farming and drives farmers out of an industry critical to our economy. It is the most immoral tax imposed on our small business owners and farmers - these entrepreneurs do not owe their success to the federal government, and the benefits of their labor should not be confiscated from their children and grandchildren when they die. I introduced the Farmers Against Crippling Taxes (FACT) Act (H.R. 186) to permanently eliminate the death tax and end the double taxation that threatens the livelihood of family farms, small businesses and jobs in North Carolina.

From blocking the EPA's outrageous "Waters of the United States" rule to ending the immoral death tax, I'm determined to advance conservative reforms that rein in Washington's overreach and return control back to North Carolina.

Until next week,

Richard Hudson

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