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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
EPA Administrator Michael Regan has said repeatedly he wants to craft a “durable” definition of “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act — one informed by Supreme Court precedent and input from a variety of stakeholders.
The Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule has been vacated by a federal judge in Arizona who said allowing it to remain in place risks “serious environmental harm,” particularly in the arid Southwest.
Representatives of state farm bureaus, as well as individual farmers and ranchers, spoke out in favor of keeping the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule in place at an online meeting today.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a fiscal 2022 spending bill for the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration that includes about $7 billion in disaster assistance and $700 million for USDA’s ReConnect program for rural broadband.
More than 200 groups, including a wide range of environmental organizations, are calling on Democratic congressional leaders today to use their reconciliation package to significantly increase funding for conservation programs.
The Biden administration has reiterated its pledge to get input from a wide variety of stakeholders, including the agricultural industry, on how it plans to define “waters of the U.S.” in the Clean Water Act, as it announced a series of upcoming “community engagements.”
The Biden administration has been filling positions relatively quickly at departments and agencies other than USDA that have regulatory authority over agriculture, while some of Donald Trump’s nominees to similar positions ran into troubles during the confirmation process.
One of the 11 Republican senators negotiating the final details of the bipartisan infrastructure package says it’s possible to have the bill text ready by the middle of the week.
The Biden administration plans to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act after concluding the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule is causing “significant environmental degradation,” according to EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
