The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) says more uncertainty is ahead when it comes to the new Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. The new rule comes as the Supreme Court will soon release a decision on a lawsuit against a previous version of WOTUS. AFBF Deputy General Counsel Travis Cushman says the new rule goes beyond the previous rule being challenged at the Supreme Court.
“We were very disappointed to see the rulemaking come out the way it did. It fields into the oral arguments October 3 in the Sackett case, it was very clear that the Supreme Court was very uncomfortable with the significant nexus test,” Cushman said during a news conference at the 2023 AFBF convention in Puerto Rico. “Yet that’s what this new rule does, it doubles down on the significant nexus test, and in some ways, it makes it go even broader. So, I think, what this does is that it creates more confusion on the farm fields, and it messes things up when we know that very soon the Supreme Court will have new guidelines for the agencies that are very different than what the EPA just now released.”
However, Cushman says, don’t expect the Supreme Court decision to end the WOTUS debate once and for all because the current case is not on the new rule.
“So, the current case is not on this new rule, so I would believe you would probably need to have a new challenge to that rule. And that’s why they should not of put this out when they did.”
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.