JUNEAU, Alaska, Aug. 27, 2015—Denny DeWitt, Alaska state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, America’s largest and leading small-business association, this afternoon issued the following comment on a federal judge’s injunction stopping a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule from taking effect Friday.
“Thank goodness we have a federal judge in North Dakota who understands the law. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers did not follow the law in adopting these regulations, I suspect, because that would have demonstrated the damage these regulations would do to small businesses in Alaska and elsewhere. When regulators say that regulations just clarify existing jurisdiction, those are bureaucratic code words for ‘we want more control.’ ”
Added Dan Danner, president and CEO of NFIB, “A federal court threw a giant wrench into the EPA and Army Corps’ plan to radically expand their power. The agencies ignored the impact of their actions on small business and ignored prior Supreme Court decisions. Any small business owner that has water running over their land is breathing a sigh of relief today.”
The EPA rule scheduled to have taken effect Friday broadens the definition of “waters of the United States” under The Clean Water Act to include nearly every pond and ditch in the nation.
“The Clean Water Act was written to govern interstate navigable waters,” said attorney Karen Harned of the NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “No one doubts that the Mississippi River or the Great Lakes are covered by these rules. The problem is that the agencies want their regulations to spread far upstream to places where even a toy boat couldn’t float.”
NFIB has 350,000 dues paying members across the nation, including 2,000 in Alaska. More information on the rule is available at www.nfib.com/waters. For more information about NFIB please visit www.nfib.com.
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/Alaska
P.O. Box 34761
Juneau, AK 99801
907-723-6667
