Farm Regulatory Certainty Act
I'm Bob Larson. A bipartisan bill making its way through Congress, with the support of two Washington Representatives, will help clarify some conservation and environmental rules while protecting farmers being targeted twice for the same violations.Representative Dan Newhouse says HR 848 has been dubbed the Farm Regulatory Certainty Act ...
DAN NEWHOUSE ... "We had a federal judge in the state of Washington in 2015, who made a ruling that dairy waste, agricultural dairy waste, fell under the RCRA rules or the solid waste disposal rules, that was clearly against the intent of the Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency. Agriculture's already regulated under several other provisions. So, this bill will give clarity to producers as to which rules they have to follow."
Newhouse says these are good people and nobody is trying to dodge the rules ...
DAN NEWHOUSE ... "But, you know, you can't just change rules in the middle of the game. Being a farmer myself and I've sat down as a Congressman and talked with lots of producers, they want to be responsible. They want good outcomes. They want to be good stewards of the environment. And so this, I think, will help them accomplish that."
Newhouse says "one of the fundamental principles of our free system of government is for the laws to be clear, comprehensible, and knowable. Otherwise, it's impossible to comply."