{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-applauds-trump-administration-proposal-would-protect-kentucky-farmers-and-coal/", "Dr. Rand Paul Applauds Trump Administration for Proposal that Would Protect Kentucky Farmers and Coal Miners", "2018-12-11", "2018", "2018-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nDecember 11, 2018\n\nContact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) released the following statement after the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a proposal to overturn a bureaucratic power grab by the Obama administration and redefine the \u201cWaters of the United States\u201d (WOTUS) in a manner mirroring legislation Dr. Paul previously introduced to help protect Kentucky farmers and coal miners:\n\n\u201cThe current, overly burdensome \u2018Waters of the United States\u2019 rule from the Obama administration places significant hardships on states, landowners, and farmers, granting broad federal control over water, and I have long called and worked for action to protect Kentuckians and all other Americans from its effects. As part of those efforts, I have previously introduced the Defense of Environment and Property Act, which I will reintroduce before the end of this Congress, to provide a permanent statutory fix for this issue. I applaud the Trump administration for its action today to revise the definition of WOTUS and provide needed clarity on the scope of federal water jurisdiction.\u201d\n\nIn 2015, the Obama administration\u2019s WOTUS rule significantly expanded the definition of waters in the U.S. to include non-navigable waters, certain dry land, drains, ditches, small ponds, and even depressions in fields that are only wet after heavy rains.\n\nAlong with cosponsoring S.J. Res. 22 in 2015, which would have nullified the WOTUS rule, Dr. Paul introduced his Defense of Environment and Property Act that same year to define \u201cnavigable waters\u201d as navigable-in-fact and relatively permanent bodies of water. Earlier this year, during Senate consideration of the Farm Bill, Dr. Paul and U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) offered an amendment that would have repealed the WOTUS rule.\n\nBackground on EPA/Army Corps of Engineers Proposal:\n\nProposed Revised Definition of \u201cWaters of the United States\u201d:\n\nClearly defines \u201cWaters of the United States\u201d as:\n\nTraditional navigable waters;\n\nTributaries of such waters;\n\nCertain ditches;\n\nCertain lakes and ponds;\n\nImpoundments of otherwise jurisdictional waters; and\n\nWetlands adjacent to other jurisdictional waters.\n\nEliminates the \u201csignificant nexus test\u201d\n\nYou can read the Trump administration\u2019s proposed revised definition here and a summary here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:11:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-applauds-trump-administration-proposal-would-protect-kentucky-farmers-and-coal/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3843439519405365, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}