Hoeven Joins WOTUS Listening Session, Working to Advance Rule that Protects Private Property Rights

Senator Worked to Defund Expansive WOTUS Rules, Protect Against Unworkable Mandates & Permitting Requirements

BISMARCK, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today joined a first-in-the-nation listening session with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer, hosted by Senator Kevin Cramer, on the EPA’s proposed “waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule. The event comes as part of the official rulemaking process, giving North Dakotans the opportunity to provide direct feedback on this consequential regulation, which seeks to restore the traditional WOTUS definition to protect private property rights and respect the role of states in managing water resources within their borders. Specifically, rule will:

Reverse the expanded, overreaching WOTUS definition, which was advanced by both the Obama and Biden administrations.
- These rules sought to expand federal regulatory authority beyond the limits established under the Clean Water Act.
- This would have imposed unworkable mandates, burdensome new permitting requirements and compliance costs on landowners, energy and agriculture producers and other industries.
Bring the WOTUS rule in compliance with the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA ruling from 2023.
Reduce the regulatory burden, provide certainty to a wide range of industries and limit federal authority to navigable waters, consistent with the Clean Water Act.
- The senator has been working with the Trump administration to advance this new rulemaking, similar to his efforts to establish the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) during President Trump’s first term.
- Hoeven also previously led the effort to defund the expansive WOTUS rule and prevent its implementation.

“Considering the tremendous impact the Obama and Biden-era WOTUS rules would have had on our state’s farmers, ranchers, energy producers and construction industry, it makes sense for the EPA to hold its first listening session on this new rule right here in North Dakota,” said Hoeven. “This is about protecting private property rights, pushing back on federal overreach and ensuring the EPA complies with the law. That means restricting WOTUS to navigable waters and not allowing federal authority to be expanded to areas like ditches, intermittent waters and other water resources that fall under the authority of state and local governments. That’s exactly what I’ve been working to achieve since I first led the effort to defund the expansion of WOTUS under the Obama administration.”

Today’s meeting follows Hoeven’s work to push back against regulatory overreach by the Biden and Obama administrations. His efforts include:

Authoring and securing provisions to defund the 2015 Obama WOTUS rule implementation in 2016 and 2017.
Helping introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval, which Congress passed, to rescind the expanded WOTUS rule. The resolution was subsequently vetoed by President Biden.
Helping introduce legislation in the 117th Congress to codify the first Trump administration’s NWPR, which replaced the 2015 Obama WOTUS rule.
Joining his colleagues in submitting an amicus brief in Sackett v. EPA, urging the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to preserve state authority to regulate local waters and lands.
Pressing the EPA and the Army Corps to suspend rulemaking on WOTUS until SCOTUS completed its consideration of Sackett v. EPA.

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