WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R. 311, the Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship (FUELS) Act, in an effort to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing new expensive and burdensome regulations on farmers with smaller fuel tanks that have no history of spills. Representative Tim Huelskamp (KS-01) co-sponsored the FUELS Act to protect Kansans from the regulatory overreach:

“The EPA continues to overstep its boundaries when it comes to farmer and ranchers in America and Kansans are tired of it. The latest Washington regulatory scheme to regulate fuel storage tanks on small farms is not only impractical but also unnecessary. What’s worse, many states do not even have a single inspector who can certify that farmers are meeting the new requirements – making it nearly impossible to comply. Why is it that this Administration wants to control and oversee every aspect of our lives?

“As a farmer, I am very pleased with today’s vote as I’ve been fighting for three years to pass legislation to lower regulatory burdens on farms. In 2011, I introduced the Freeing Agriculture to Reap More (FARM) Act to address multiple over-regulations threatening agriculture. One of the biggest complaints I hear in Town Halls is that there is too much regulation from Washington Bureaucrats. We need less control and fewer mandates from Washington, not more.”