{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://adriansmith.house.gov/press-release/stopping-latest-federal-power-grab", "Stopping the Latest Federal Power Grab", "2014-10-17", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "NE", "Adrian Smith", "S001172", "adriansmith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "While Congress has been out of session, I have spent the last few weeks traveling Nebraska\u2019s Third District meeting with constituents and listening to your thoughts, concerns, and ideas.\nOne of the issues I have heard most about is the Waters of the United States (WOTUS).\u00a0 This proposal would allow the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to expand federal regulatory powers over waters of the U.S. under the Clean Water Act.\nThe word \u201cnavigable\u201d was included in the Clean Water Act more than 80 times in order to limit the jurisdiction of the federal government on farms, ranches, man-made conveyances, and other local water jurisdictions. Attempts to alter this interpretation without Congressional approval are a clear overreach of statutory authority and clearly defy the intent of the law.\u00a0 Further, this change could severely harm Nebraska\u2019s agriculture economy.\nCommon Sense Nebraska, a coalition of Nebraska organizations which have come together in response to the WOTUS proposal released a report this week detailing the many problems this rule would cause for our state.\u00a0 The report was compiled by former director of the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) Mike Linder and indicates the rule would increase costs and uncertainty for agriculture producers.\nLinder\u2019s analysis confirms the proposal would \u201cimpose a blanket jurisdictional determination over thousands of acres of private property\u201d causing \u201cunnecessary property restrictions and uncertainty as to what that actually means to a farmer or rancher.\u201d\u00a0 This finding refutes the EPA\u2019s claims the rule would not have much effect on farmers and ranchers.\nAs beneficiaries of clean water, Nebraska producers take numerous steps to protect the natural resources of our state.\u00a0 We all agree safeguards are necessary, but this proposed rule ignores safeguards already in place, and steps NDEQ has taken to work with producers to protect our water.\nI have written the EPA and Army Corps to express my objections to this plan, and many Nebraskans are speaking out as well.\u00a0 The EPA recently announced it would extend the comment period until November 14, 2014.\u00a0 While this delay is a positive development, I question their motive of moving the deadline for comments on this economically disastrous rule until after the midterm elections.\nI encourage all interested Nebraskans to continue making their voices heard on this rule at: https://www.regulations.gov.\u00a0 We have fought this overreach before, and we must continue to let the EPA and other agencies know where we stand.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://adriansmith.house.gov/press-release/stopping-latest-federal-power-grab"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9411820210516453, "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"}