Chairman Pat Roberts says the big issue confronting the Senate Agriculture Committee is “regulatory overkill we are experiencing with every agency” and particularly with the EPA. Roberts mentioned regulatory reform twice while listing committee priorities for this session. “We’ve got a lot of priorities,” he said, citing reauthorization of the CFTC, the mandatory livestock price reporting law, and child nutrition programs – “big time.” Regulatory reform, he said, “seems to be the big thing” in farm country.
Roberts plans a hearing on EPA’s proposed Waters of the United States rule, which would spell out the upstream reach of clean water laws. Farm groups adamantly oppose the regulation. Roberts declined to say if the WOTUS hearing would be the first hearing of the year. Roberts spoke to reporters after a two-minute organizational meeting held in an ornate reception room off the Senate floor. A dozen or so members of the Agriculture Committee stood with Roberts around a dark wooden table in the center of the room for the speedy session.
Asked about the potential of budget cuts for USDA programs, Roberts said he had told Budget chairman Mike Enzi, “Be fair. We already gave at the office,” an apparent reference to reductions written into the 2014 farm law.