EXCLUSIVE: After scoring a victory in her effort to undo the Biden-era expansion of clean water regulations that led to outrage from farmers and homesteaders, Senate DOGE Chairwoman Joni Ernst put forward permanent policy exclusions Thursday to prevent future Democratic administrations from "overreach."
"If you try to navigate a wastewater treatment pool, you’ll be up a creek without a paddle," Ernst, R-Iowa, said, mocking what she and many heartland landowners see as federal overreach into clearly unnavigable waters.
Rainwater pools, farm runoff, small property ponds, and other ephemeral or seasonal water bodies – like prairie potholes and temporary channels – were suddenly subject to federal regulation, not local farmers or landowners.
"WOTUS regulatory uncertainty has threatened the livelihoods of hardworking Iowa farmers, small businesses, and landowners for far too long and I was thrilled to join EPA Administrator (Lee) Zeldin in announcing that the Trump administration is revising this misguided and harmful regulatory expansion," Ernst told Fox News Digital, noting her announcement Thursday builds on an effort announced in March by the EPA that opened the door to such revisions.
BIDEN ADMIN QUIETLY REINSTATES OVERREACHING EPA RULE POTENTIALLY REGULATING PUDDLES, DITCHES
Buffalo Bayou and the skyline of Houston, Texas. (Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Ernst has called the original Biden and Obama expansions of the law disastrous and "overreach" that continue the trend of Democrats "mounting unnecessary environmental regulations to overwhelm the commonsense voice of hardworking Americans."
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said Ernst’s "CLEAR Waters Act" will provide necessary clarity and consistency to such "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) regulations.
Naig said it should "end the constant policy whiplash that changes with each new administration."
"It’s a commonsense approach that brings certainty to those who are working every day to responsibly manage our land and water."
SCHUMER RIPS ‘MAGA’ SUPREME COURT AFTER 9-0 VOTE ON EPA WATERS RULE
A 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Sackett v. EPA stripped some of the Biden administration’s control via their "significant nexus" test of waterway categorization.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the 9-0 majority opinion that the EPA had ordered Idaho landowners Michael and Chantell Sackett to restore a wetland where they were building a home or pay $40,000 per day in penalties.
Alito said the EPA had considered the area a wetland because "they were near a ditch that fed into a creek, which fed into Priest Lake; a navigable intrastate lake."
"The Sacketts sued, alleging that their property was not 'waters of the United States.'"
That decision enraged Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who said the "MAGA Supreme Court is continuing to erode our country's environmental laws."
"Make no mistake – this ruling will mean more polluted water, and more destruction of wetlands," he warned at the time.
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.