Water Regulation. H.R. 5078 would block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers from finalizing a proposed rule, supported by the Obama administration to expand the scope of the federal government\’s authority over \”waters of the United States.\” During debate on the bill, Representative Steve Southerland (R-Fla.), sponsor of the bill, explained: \”Under its proposed rules, Federal agencies like the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers would see their regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act drastically expanded, to the point of covering almost any body of water throughout America, from ditches to culverts to pipes to watersheds to farmland ponds.\”
The House passed H.R. 5078 on September 9, 2014 by a vote of 262 to 152 (Roll Call 489). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because both federal water regulations and the EPA are unconstitutional, and if the rule were to pass, activities such as farming would become nearly unfeasible, since farmers would have to get federal permits to do many farm activities, such as cleaning out ditches.
