EPA’s Clean Water Rule; E-Verify Impact on Ag Industry

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Farmers Union convention she’s renaming the Waters of the U.S. rule the Clean Water Rule and said EPA should have done a better job of rolling out its Clean Water Rule - from calling it WOTUS instead of the Clean Water Rule - to not being more clear about what EPA was and was not proposing - to not talking to farmers and others before EPA put out the interpretive rule. McCarthy says the Clean Water Rule boils down to three simple facts. First - one in three Americans get their drinking water from streams and wetlands that lack clear protection from pollution today. Second - the U.S. economy can’t function without clean water. Third - the species Americans depend on and the places they love for recreation can’t survive without it.

The Agriculture Workforce Coalition has sent a letter to House leadership - signed by more than 140 food and ag organizations - opposing the Legal Workforce Act recently reported out of the House Judiciary Committee. The organizations say mandatory E-Verify would have a devastating impact on the ag industry in the absence of a legislative solution for ag’s labor needs.