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Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after submitting revelatory evidence into the Congressional Record after participating in a full Oversight and Government Reform Committee Hearing titled “EPA Mismanagement Part II” where he questioned EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, on recent reports that senior Army Corps of Engineer (Corps) employees expressed serious legal and scientific deficiencies with the final draft of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule:
“This week, newly uncovered memos document senior Corps employees confirming what many of us have known for a long time; the EPA forced its WOTUS rule down the throats of the American people with total disregard for any scientific basis or adherence to the rule of law. We now have clear evidence that the bureaucratic minions at the EPA are more concerned about enacting the president’s far-left environmental agenda at any cost over the well-being of the American people.
“This federal water grab personifies the Obama Administration’s relentless efforts to control how Americans are allowed to live their lives. I am genuinely unable to comprehend the ignorance required to continue pushing this regulation despite multiple Supreme Court rulings explicitly declaring the EPA’s actions to be unconstitutional. This fundamentally flawed and illegally conceived regulation must never see the light of day. I continue to call on EPA Administrator McCarthy to terminate the WOTUS rule, and if not, Congress should use its Constitutional ‘power of the purse’ to ensure not a single dime is appropriated for its implementation.”
Video of Congressman Gosar’s questions for Administrator McCarthy from today's Oversight and Government Reform Committee Hearing can be viewed by clicking the picture below.
Background:
The memo's from the Corps that Congressman Gosar submitted can be found at the Oversight and Government Reform website HERE.
Yesterday, July 28, 2015, Environment & Energy Publishing reported on two recently uncovered memos written by senior Army Corps staff which details legal and scientific flaws with the final version of the WOTUS rule. The memos have not yet been released to the public. According to Environment & Energy Publishing, who first reported on the documents, at least two congressional oversight committees have also obtained copies of the memos. Congressman Gosar also obtained a copy of the memos and submitted them today into the Congressional Record.
On March 25, 2014, the EPA and the Corps released a proposed rule that would assert Clean Water Act jurisdiction over nearly all areas with even the slightest of connections to water resources, including man-made conveyances.
On May 1, 2014, Congressman Gosar and 230 of his colleagues sent a letter to Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the EPA, and John M. McHugh, Secretary of the Army, urging them to withdraw the proposed rule. The full text of that letter can be found HERE.
On January 28, 2015, Congressman Gosar introduced H.R. 594, the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act. This legislation has the support of 185 bipartisan cosponsors. Click HERE to read more about the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act.
On May 12, 2015, the House passed H.R. 1732, the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act, by a vote of 261-155. This critical legislation requires the EPA and Corps of Engineers to formally withdraw the agencies’ proposed rule that would redefine WOTUS and any subsequent final rule. Congressman Gosar joined the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Bill Shuster in introducing this bill. Click HERE to read more.
More than 200 organizations and local municipalities have publicly declared their opposition to the proposed WOTUS rule.
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