NCBA, Farm Bureau among groups filing brief in WOTUS challenge

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Public Lands Council, along with other industry and municipal stakeholders, filed their opening brief Tuesday in a lawsuit asking that the controversial “waters of the U.S. rule” be invalidated. In a joint release, NCBA and the PLC said the brief details how the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disregarded the statutory and constitutional limits of federal authority, lobbied on their own rule-making, and failed to craft a rule that meets the rigors of the law. “Cattlemen and women have long asked for clarity in the Clean Water Act, yet this rule adds subjectivity,” NCBA President Tracy Brunner said in the release. “By violating fundamental tenets of administrative law and expanding jurisdiction well beyond the text and structure of the Clean Water Act, it is very clear the WOTUS rulemaking was flawed from start.” Other groups signing the brief, which was filed with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, include the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Corn Growers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a long list of farm and commodity groups...more