Press Releases

PRESCOTT, AZ - Representative Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) issued the following statement in response to the recent reversal of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) by an Obama-appointed judge.

“The decision to reverse the NWPR throws America’s clean water policies into a regulatory black hole and leaves farmers, ranchers and our communities at the whim of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for enforcement under the outdated Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.

Higher courts need to immediately consider this reckless ruling.  Once again, America’s farmers, ranchers and other communities that depend on water will face the wrath of the EPA’s illegal water grab under the WOTUS rule, which runs contrary to previous Supreme Court decisions, state water law and existing compacts.

The NWPR, implemented by the Trump administration, brought common sense and regulatory certainty to our communities.  This new ruling will delay important infrastructure projects, kill jobs, prevent private property owners from utilizing their own property, result in unnecessary fines and cause considerable harm to our economy. 

Farmers, ranchers, job creators and the American people can’t afford to lose more of our precious water supplies to the Biden bureaucracy. I hope that higher federal courts will see the importance of responsible rulemaking and reverse this terrible decision.  Barring court action Congress should act and utilize our Constitutional ‘power of the purse’ to defund the arbitrary enforcement of the WOTUS regulations,” concluded Congressman Gosar.