Stockman Blocks EPA Power Grab, Urges Congress to Strip Bureaucrats of Unchecked Power

Press Release

Congressman Steve Stockman Wednesday voted to pass H.R. 5078, which blocks the Obama administration from enacting a radical expansion of EPA authority, and urged Congress to strip the federal government of its ability propose future power grabs.

Earlier this year Stockman proposed similar language as an amendment to federal spending bills. Stockman's amendment would have blocked any funding of any study or enactment of the rule.

The bill prohibits federal agencies from enacting a proposed redefinition of "waters of the United States" which would have given the EPA to power to regulate any property they claim forms a "nexus" with a navigable waterway.

The term "nexus," and other terms, are vaguely defined, and the rule includes any surface feature with the ability to hold or carry water, placing virtually any targeted property under federal control as a waterway.

"The EPA's radical rule would give the federal government power over virtually any property it wants. It was proposed for one reason, to give the radical environmentalist movement unchecked power," said Stockman.

"The radical environmentalist movement has been pushing this proposal for decades. The Waters of the US scheme is so radical Democrats couldn't pass it during the decades when they controlled the House, Senate and White House. That's why Obama ordered the EPA to simply enact it as a rule," said Stockman.

"Liberals are using the power of bureaucracy to enact radical power grabs they know have no support. Congress must eliminate the power of unelected federal employees to propose and enact their own rules. There can no be rule by executive decree in a constitutional republic," said Stockman.

"Congress must pass the REINS Act, which requires any major federal rule be passed by Congress and signed by the President before it can be enacted," said Stockman. "Laws must be made by elected lawmakers, not a radical activist with a federal employee badge."

The proposed EPA rule would so radically expand the definition of federally-regulated waterways even the desert itself would be regulated as water.

"My west Texas ranch sits in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert," said Stockman communications director Donny Ferguson. "There is no water whatsoever anywhere on the property. Under this EPA rule my desert ranch would become a federally-regulated waterway. The EPA is so power-hungry they'll define a waterway as a place even Noah wouldn't build a boat."

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