Issue Position: The Fight to Stop WOTUS

Issue Position

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem led the fight to stop WOTUS.

When the Obama administration tried to force WOTUS (Waters of the US) onto the backs of farmers, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem led the lawsuit to block WOTUS from taking effect.

And he won.

In fact, because of Wayne's effort, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) were stopped dead in their attempt to control the nation's land.

Wayne's effort was the only injunction to be upheld by a federal court. Without his effort, WOTUS would be in effect today in all 50 states.

Why does it matter?

The EPA and Corps used WOTUS to give the federal agency the ability to regulate almost any source of water that reaches a federal waterway -- even the smallest of North Dakota's prairie potholes.

Farmers would have been hit the hardest.

Under WOTUS, North Dakota farmers would have become subject to the overreach of the EPA to an ever-greater degree. Potentially every drainage ditch would have been subject to new regulations and farmers would be forced to file permits and receive approval from the federal government for the management of their own farmland.

Hard hit on the state budget too

It would have cost the state millions. WOTUS would have added layers upon layers of new requirements onto state regulators without any funding to cover the costs. North Dakota taxpayers would have been left carrying the cost of the federal overreach.

Wayne is the best at it.

Wayne Stenehjem has filed more lawsuits against the federal government than any other Republican attorney general. Whether it's the BLM, EPA, or Army Corps, Wayne has a solid track record of stopping the federal government's job-killing regulations.

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