Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Utah for his leadership on this and many other natural resource issues. All across Oregon, farmers and ranchers and other property owners are walking around their land wondering what the EPA will regulate under the proposed rule to expand its Clean Water Act jurisdiction. Ranchers in eastern Oregon wonder about their stock ponds. Wheat growers in Columbia Basin worry about an intermittent stream adjacent to a field. Fruit growers in Hood River and onion growers in Ontario are concerned about their irrigation ditches. This proposed rule is based on faulty science. It underestimates the tremendous harm it poses to our rural economies, so it is no wonder people are concerned. At a town hall meeting I had in Grants Pass Saturday morning, three of them, 30 people there, this was their number one issue. They are involved in real estate. They are very, very upset, very concerned about what this could do. Further, this regulatory overreach by the EPA blatantly ignores Congress' repeated rejection of similar legislative efforts to expand jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. Of course, we shouldn't be that surprised. The EPA has tried this before. They have been rebuked by the Supreme Court, twice in fact, in 2001 and 2006.…”