U.S. House SubCommittee Hearing on WOTUS

Earlier this week, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Past President Steve Foglesong testified before the House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry at their hearing titled, “Waters of the U.S. Rulemaking and its Impact on Rural America.” I spoke to him on Tuesday and asked him how the hearing went
Foglesong: “They understand that this rule is going to be problematic. They wanted to hear from folks that were stakeholders and have to live this and deal with day to day. That is what they got — I think there were nine of us that testified. They got the same story from everybody — from rural electric co-ops, to timber guys to producers like myself.
He said that message that was consistently shared was the ambiguity of the rules and not knowing if there will be a need for permits for activities that have normal activities; and the concern that there will be variability across the country in how these rules are interpreted.
Foglesong urges ranchers to continue communicating the problems with WOTUS.
Foglesong: “I think they need to continue to talk to their Congressman and make them understand how problematic this is going to be. There is no way to try and run a business when you don’t know what the rules are going to be. There is no rules that we really understand so it will make it really tough to stay in business the way we are right now. They just need to be in contact with the Congressmen and let them know this just isn’t going to work.”