NCBA Secures New WOTUS Proposed Rule that Protects Family Farmers and Ranchers

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) announced support for the new proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The revised WOTUS rule comes after decades of advocacy by NCBA and our state affiliate partners to remove confusing and burdensome regulations on cattle farmers and ranchers.

“Waters of the U.S. has been a longstanding and frustrating issue for family farmers and ranchers. Every few years, the definition of a ‘water of the U.S.’ has changed. Often, this meant that small water features like prairie potholes or dry ditches suddenly fell under federal regulation,” said NCBA President and Nebraska cattleman Buck Wehrbein. “NCBA has spent years fighting to protect cattle producers from excessive red tape. We went to the EPA, advocated on Capitol Hill, and even took this issue all the way up to the Supreme Court to protect our members from federal overreach. We appreciate the EPA finally fixing previous WOTUS rules and supporting America’s family farmers and ranchers.”

The revised WOTUS rule ensures that only large bodies of water and their main tributaries fall under federal jurisdiction. Past WOTUS rules issued under the Obama and Biden administrations placed small, isolated water features under federal regulation. Prairie potholes, playa lakes, and even ditches that only carried water after large storms became regulated as if they were a large lake, river or ocean.