“They have exceeded their original mission substantially under both Republican and Democratic presidents and violated the sovereignty of the states. I think we need to start fresh.”

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has drafted legislation that, if passed, would do away with the Environmental Protection Agency.

"The EPA has been doing some drastic things,” the Fort Walton Beach Republican said. “They have exceeded their original mission substantially under both Republican and Democratic presidents and violated the sovereignty of the states. I think we need to start fresh.”

Gaetz said he has sent out an email to fellow Republican lawmakers to gauge their interest in signing up as co-sponsors of his bill.

“Today, the American people are drowning in rules and regulations promulgated by unelected bureaucrats,” Gaetz said in the email, which was obtained by the Huffington Post. “And the Environmental Protection Agency has become an extraordinary offender.”

Gaetz cited as an example of EPA overreach a policy, designed to protect isolated wetland areas, that forced cattle farmers to get permitting for the ponds on their land they used to provide water for their cows.

Under Gaetz’s proposal, the EPA would cease to exist at the end of 2018. The time between passage of a bill and the abolition of the agency would “allow states and local governments to protect their environmental assets in the absence of federal overreach,” he said.

“As conservatives, we must understand that states and local communities are best positioned to responsibly regulate the environmental assets within their jurisdictions,” Gaetz said in the email.

Efforts to reach EPA officials in Northwest Florida willing or able to speak to the Northwest Florida Daily News were not successful. One official did call the agency “a huge national asset,” before referring questions to another source.

Gaetz’s proposal comes at a time when the EPA is under intense scrutiny. President Donald Trump has ordered grant programs frozen and placed a gag order on the agency.

He’s also called for across-the-board cuts in government regulation and selected Scott Pruitt to head the EPA.

Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, has battled against environmental regulations for years. He has, according to the Huffington Post, “spent much of his recent career suing the EPA.”