News

Lawmakers take EPA to task for anti-farmer campaign

A group of bi-partisan U.S. House members wants the Environmental Protection Agency to account for funding a campaign in Washington state that the legislators say is anti-farmer.  Republican Dan Newhouse of Washington and Democrat Brad Ashford of Nebraska were joined by House Ag Committee Chairman Mike Conaway of Texas and 142 Members on a letter to the EPA.  The members are asking Administrator Gina McCarthy about EPA Region 10’s funding of the whatsupstream.com website and advocacy campaign asking for greater regulation of farmers and ranchers.

Representative Newhouse says funding the anti-farmer campaigns that lobby for more regulation is contrary to federal law and a misuse of taxpayer dollars.  Newhouse says it’s “troubling that the EPA has allowed taxpayer funds to be used to attack farmers.”

Representative Ashford says he’s disappointed in the EPA’s actions and joins his “colleagues in the House and Senate to reprimand the EPA and call on them to fully cooperate with investigations. I do not want to see this misuse of federal funds impact other states, such as Nebraska.”

Chairman Conaway called the EPA’s actions “one more example of the lack of appropriate oversight by EPA…America’s farmers and ranchers deserve a government that will defend their cause and work to make sure it has a thriving future. These actions by EPA, however, do the opposite.”

The lawmakers say the EPA used grant awards to fund a website, radio ads, and billboards depicting dead fish and polluted water urging people to contact their state legislators.  The ads push for holding “the agricultural industry to the same level of responsibility as other industries.”

A large, red button on the website allows visitors to send emails to state lawmakers advocating for 100-foot stream buffer zones and other policies.  An EPA Inspector General’s report in 2014 warned that EPA Region Ten had insufficient protections in place to ensure grant awardees were not using funds for advocacy or lobbying.