GAO Confirms EPA Illegally Promoted WOTUS

The Government Accountability Office says the EPA misused social media and a grassroots lobbying campaign to drum up support for its Waters of the U.S. rule. Farm Bureau General Counsel Ellen Steen says the GAO opinion vindicates those, like the American Farm Bureau Federation, who have claimed all along that EPA stepped past the bounds of proper agency rulemaking…

“We now have independent verification of what we have believed for a long time; that EPA stepped over the lines in its advocacy campaign in support of its Waters of the US rule.”

The EPA used social media to illegally lobby Congress to support the rule, according to the report released early this week…

“The GAO report focuses on social media, to do what the GAO terms as covert propaganda and illegal grass roots lobbying to try to influence congress and influence the public in support of its new regulation.”

Steen says courts already have declared serious doubts about the legal authority for the rule. She goes on to say that Congress should act immediately to prohibit implementation of the rule…

“We’ve all felt that the rule itself was unlawful under the Clean Water Act, but now we have confirmation that the whole process was unlawful.  So, what we hope is next that congress will take action to stop this rule.”

American Farm Bureau General Counsel Ellen Steen.