House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is asking lawmakers to zero out funding for any work on the Obama administration's National Ocean Policy.

Hastings sent a letter yesterday to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) asking that each fiscal 2013 spending bill include language that would bar federal agencies from using any money or manpower on the National Ocean Policy and efforts to launch new regional ocean planning.

"The administration's efforts to impose this policy across the nation and mandate ocean zoning should be put on pause until the full economic consequences are known and direct answers are given on the specific statutory authority that justifies the construction of this new, regulatory behemoth," Hastings wrote. "This can best be accomplished by putting a halt to the administration's cloaked funding of this policy for fiscal year 2013."

The letter is the latest push in Hasting's effort to slow down or stop that administration's efforts on the new policy, which he thinks would create a new bureaucracy, burdensome new regulations and the potential for more lawsuits and conflict over ocean use.

The administration launched the plan in an attempt to bring agencies and regional groups together to work on ocean issues.

Obama signed an executive order last summer creating a National Ocean Council that will attempt to improve coordination and planning on marine issues and calling for regional bodies across the United States to begin "coastal and marine spatial planning."

The marine plans are intended to address growing demands on the ocean for fishing, transportation, energy and recreation.

Hastings has previously asked the White House for multiple extensions to the public comment deadline for the policy. He also has sent several requests to the Council on Environmental Quality for information about its funding, and his panel has held several oversight hearings to criticize the proposal, including one scheduled today in Alaska.

As many as 27 federal agencies oversee actions that affect the ocean and are a part of the National Ocean Council. Those agencies do not have line items in their budget proposals for work on the national ocean policy.

Hastings wants appropriators to include a wide-ranging rider on all spending bills to block funding across all agencies. He says any spending on the plan should be more explicit.

A draft ocean policy implementation plan sets a number of actions for the agencies involved in the process, including 59 "milestones" for 2012 and 92 "milestones" for 2013.

"No federal agency has requested any funding for the implementation of these actions which means funds are being diverted for unauthorized activities within the federal agencies' budgets," he wrote to appropriators. "Even if the milestones are not major activities, significant staff time will certainly be diverted from existing activities and missions of their agencies."

Click here to read a full copy of the letter.