GOP senator blocks Trump nominees over wetlands

THE WEEK • August 21, 2026

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday vowed to halt all of President Donald Trump’s nominees until his administration eases a wetlands conservation policy aimed at protecting the breeding grounds of ducks and other waterfowl. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last weekend said it would at least temporarily retain the Biden-era program, which bars farmers from draining land near protected federal conservation easements. “My farmers are furious and so am I,” Cramer said. The Trump administration’s “blind defense of a Biden rule favored by environmental extremists” just “confounds me.”