Senate Committee Passes Bill Sponsored by Senator John McCain to Scale Back Presidential Water Grab

Press Release

The Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works approved the Federal Water Quality Protection Act, a bill introduced by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and cosponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using its "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule as a tool to control land or isolated water.

"Farmers, ranchers and small business owners throughout Arizona are rightfully concerned that the federal government's unprecedented power grab under the EPA's flawed water rule would impose new costs and burdens on the use of private lands," said Senator McCain. "According to a recent analysis by the American Action Forum, the final rule is estimated to rob $460 million annually from states, local governments, and private entities through added regulatory compliance costs. The ripple effect from this final rule will no doubt cause even more harm by killing jobs and slowing the economy. I thank the Committee for advancing our common-sense solution that would prevent the EPA from dictating how Arizonans use their own water, which has already been severely limited as a result of historic drought in the arid West."

"Under the EPA's plan, broad swaths of private land stand to come under federal regulation, imposing massive compliance costs on businesses and local governments," said Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry President and CEO Glenn Hamer. "We applaud Senators McCain and Flake for all of their efforts to put a stop to the EPA's regulatory overreach."

Senators McCain and Flake previously introduced legislation that would require a peer-reviewed scientific analysis to rewrite the EPA's WOTUS rule, which would address gaps in the flawed science that was used to define waters that come under the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction.

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