Graves: Congress seeks ways to curb regulatory overreach

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves said regulatory overreach is more than a nuisance — it’s a threat to the separation of powers set up in the U.S. Constitution.

Graves, a Republican from Tarkio, was in Canton on Wednesday for a town hall-style meeting with constituents at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo. He said the Obama administration has directed federal agencies to create rules that failed to pass in Congress.

“We’re seeing this particularly with the EPA,” Graves said.

Congress did not approve a proposed law a few years ago that would have allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to control waters outside of navigable waterways. But the EPA now is seeking the power to control water not only in navigable waterways, but also “next to a jurisdictional water” or near a “significant nexus.”

That broad and vague wording is intentional, Graves said.

“It would give them the power to control any water, anywhere,” he said.

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