Agriculture groups see benefits to Republican Senate majority

Montana farm and ranch groups will appeal to a Republican U.S. Senate to turn back federal land and environmental laws challenging their industry, representatives said this week. Federal policies addressing water regulation, endangered species and national monuments are among those the agriculture lobby has attempted to change in the current Congress of split majorities. House Republicans were sympathetic, but Democrats in control of the Senate were not. In two months, the GOP will control both houses. “Potentially this will allow some cooperation between the two houses on issues that we see as valuable from a land management perspective,” said Jay Bodner, of Montana Stockgrowers Association. The first issue up would be the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to extend its regulatory reach under the Clean Water Act. The EPA wants the authority to add seasonal wetlands and drainages to the waterways it regulates under the “waters of the United States” definition of the Clean Water Act. Farm and ranch groups bristle at the thought. “The rule is probably the biggest property rights violation affecting farmers and ranchers in Montana that I can think of, at least in my lifetime,” said Nicole Rolf, who tracks EPA water actions for the Montana Farm Bureau Federation. Many pastures are crisscrossed by seasonal streams, where cattle get water. After streams dry up, cattle continue to graze in the area and manure can collect in the dry channel. Ranchers worry the manure would be considered a pollutant under the proposed rule, which the EPA could regulate and opponents to agriculture would use to protest ranch practices. House Republicans this year passed a bill prohibiting the EPA from broadening its authority. Democrats in the Senate wouldn’t consider the bill...more