Farm Bureau president calls for Congress to block water bill implementation

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law by conducting a social media lobbying campaign to promote its Waters of the United States rule.

“It’s clear from this report that EPA orchestrated this matter in a biased fashion," American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said. "Now it’s up to Congress to clean up this mess by including a corrective measure in the omnibus bill now taking shape on Capitol Hill."

Stallman said the illegal tactics used to generate support for the rule and the fact that the courts already have declared serious doubts about the legal authority for the rule should be adequate justification for Congress to act immediately and prohibit its implementation.

“We applaud U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) for asking GAO to conduct this investigation," he said. "The GAO findings vindicate those, like the American Farm Bureau Federation, who have claimed all along that EPA’s tactics advocating for this rule stepped past the bounds of proper agency rule making. EPA was focused only on promoting the rule rather than hearing good-faith concerns from a wide cross-section of Americans. The public deserves better when important matters of public policy are at stake." 

The American Farm Bureau Federation is an independent, non-governmental organization representing farm and ranch families.