Letters

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republican leader Sam Graves (R-MO) and several of his colleagues today raised concerns about regulatory actions by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) which would expand the breadth of their regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate “waters of the United States”, or “WOTUS”. The Committee leaders warned these agencies to stay within the bounds of authority granted to them by Congress.

In a letter to the Administrator of the EPA, Michael S. Regan, and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Michael L. Connor, Graves and his colleagues noted the recent Supreme Court decision, West Virginia v. EPA, in which the majority opinion noted that there are extraordinary cases in which an agency must point to “clear congressional authorization for the authority it claims.”

Members asked for the EPA and the Corps to provide lists of all pending and expected rulemakings related to WOTUS and to provide the specific Congressional authority for each.

Read the full letter here.