Idaho delegation
decries over-zealous EPA
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October 12, 2011 |
A Priest Lake, Idaho, couple is headed for the
U.S. Supreme Court over a land use dispute with
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that
should have never occurred, according to members
of the Idaho Congressional Delegation.
Mike and Chantell Sackett were in Washington,
D.C., today as part of a forum convened by
Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and attended by
Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch and
Idaho Representative Raúl Labrador.
“This is what happens when an over-zealous
federal agency would rather force compliance
than give any consideration to private property
rights, individual rights, basic decency or
common sense,” Crapo told the Sacketts.
Crapo is a member of the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee (EPW), with oversight of
the EPA. He said when Congress wrote the Clean
Water Act, it was never intended to authorize
actions against citizens such as those that the
EPA has engaged in against the Sacketts. The EPA
initiated an enforcement action against the
Sacketts, paving the way to fine the couple up
to $32,500 per day until they complied. In
response, the Sacketts sued the EPA for
violating their rights to due process under the
U.S. Constitution.
“It’s stunning to hear this kind of action is
happening right here in America,” said Risch.
“It is critical that Americans understand that
federal bureaucrats have gone well beyond their
authority to keep our air and water clean. The
legislative branch must reclaim its
constitutional right to legislate and stop these
abuses.”
"Listening to the Sackett family tell their
story today to Members of Congress was
eye-opening," said Labrador. "Hearing their
firsthand experience with a bullying federal
agency that seems to be above the law is
frustrating. I am hopeful that the Supreme Court
will stand with them, and with the concept of
due process enshrined in the Constitution to
remind an overreaching bureaucracy that no
agency, no matter how big, can run roughshod
over the principles of law and order. I am
optimistic that the Supreme Court will find that
the EPA does not have the power to victimize
private citizens as they have with the
Sacketts."
The Delegation members say the Sackett case
demonstrates why Congress must stay engaged
because federal agencies and some members of
Congress want to expand federal power over the
rights of property owners and individuals. Last
Congress, Crapo, Risch and other Senators
blocked a bill from consideration that would
have drastically expanded the scope of the Clean
Water Act and provided legal authority to EPA to
engage in the type of overreach seen in the
Sackett case.
During the forum, the Sacketts emphasized their
case is a violation of their Constitutional
rights. “Can EPA take over your land, calling it
‘wetlands,’ without meaningful, direct judicial
review?” they said. “We believe property owners
have a constitutional right to have their day in
court and EPA has to be subject to the rule of
law.”
Crapo has joined with Risch and other Republican
Senators on several separate bills that would
curtail further overreach by federal agencies.
Similar efforts are underway in the House.
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