In the News

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's Republican U.S. Rep. Jason Smith says he thinks the federal Environmental Protection Agency should be eliminated.

Smith's remarks came during a Missouri Farm Bureau presentation Thursday at the Missouri State Fair on a new rule on streams, tributaries and wetlands.

The EPA says the federal rule clarifies but doesn't expand which smaller bodies of water should be protected from development and pollution.

The Missouri Farm Bureau says the rule is a significant expansion of the EPA's authority. The group wants the new rule axed.

Smith says he supports not only stripping funding for the EPA but eliminating the agency altogether.