Over the last several weeks the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tried to make the hard sell for rules it’s trying to make directly impacting agriculture. No question the Obama administration has a poor track record with agricultural interests on any number of issues like the disclosure of producer information, spilled milk and fugitive dust.
On July 9, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy tried to make the case in Missouri, but ended up stoking the fires with her comments. This week the Administrator met with Republican members of the Senate Agriculture Committee. We had asked for a meeting in a May 23 letter.
During our meeting with the Administrator, I reiterated my concerns with the Waters of the U.S. rule, and the unease I’m hearing from Iowans at my town meetings. I shared with the administrator a story I read in my local Farm Bureau Spokesman about how the federal government can’t even make a decision about whether a farmer needs a permit to put in conservation practices on his own land.
It’s hard to believe how the EPA thinks it can manage if this proposal to greatly expand its jurisdiction goes through when it can’t handle simple decisions currently. Imagine the confusion and hold ups if every farmer in Iowa had to ask “mother may I” to an EPA ignorant of agriculture before undertaking a whole range of land management practices.
I appreciate the Administrator’s coming to the Hill to talk with us, but the meeting did little to alleviate my concerns that the agency isn’t listening to the people its rules will directly impact.