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Blunt says a higher judge could decide WOTUS

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri tells Brownfield he’s not a lawyer, but it appears the EPA’s Clean Water Rule is going into effect for 38 states –and he says, fortunately, Missouri’s not one of them, at least for now. Missouri is one of 13 states that got a temporary injunction last week to prevent the so-called Waters of the U.S. rule from going into effect. Blunt says a higher judge could decide that the rule must go into effect for ALL states, “If that goes all the way to the Supreme Court, that takes a couple of years. If the rule has been in effect for a couple of years, what happens is, people make a lot of economic decisions that aren’t good ones. But, they have to be made to comply with this rule or pay huge penalties.”

Blunt says the provisions in pending appropriations bills that would allow nothing to be spent to implement the Clean Water Rule or the so-called Clean Power Rule – appears the best way for Congress to try and halt them, “There’s no way the president, I think, would ever sign a law that said the EPA can’t do this. Now, we ought to have a law that requires me to vote on every rule and regulation.”

Blunt has co-sponsored the REINs act for the past two years – requiring any executive branch rule with significant economic impact to be approved by Congress. A similar version has passed in the U.S. House. Brownfield interviewed Senator Blunt at the Delta Center Field Day in Portageville, Missouri.

AUDIO: Interview with Senator Roy Blunt at Delta Center Field Day