WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today with a bipartisan group of senators introduced The Federal Water Quality Protection Act to halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ‘Waters of the United States’ proposed rule.  Watch Sen. Robert’s comments here

“I’m proud to lead agriculture’s charge in pushing back against EPA’s egregious federal overreach. Complying with the ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule is consistently the number one concern I hear from farmers and ranchers across the country,” said Roberts. “The last thing rural America needs to worry about is more burdensome and costly federal oversight down on the farm. Our farmers and ranchers’ job is to take care of the land and natural resources. The federal government doesn’t have to tell them to do that.”

The bill, introduced by U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) members John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., with Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., will be referred to the EPW Committee.

The Federal Water Quality Protection Act requires EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw the current proposed rule, which has received considerable criticism from a variety of industries – including agriculture – and restart the full rulemaking process to develop a new rule in consultation with stakeholders, state partners and regulated entities.