Republicans advance measure to cancel Biden Clean Water Act rule
Jeremy Beaman
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Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced a measure Tuesday to cancel a key Biden administration rule that defines what water bodies are subject to federal regulation.
Republicans have argued the Biden rule is too onerous and too easily exposes landowners, farmers, and others to litigation for seeking to carry out even routine activities on their properties, such as installing ponds.
The Congressional Review Act resolution, which passed out of committee in a party-line vote, would nullify the administration’s definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act, which gives authority to the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers to covered bodies of water.
WOTUS FIGHT RENEWED AHEAD OF SACKETT DECISION
EPA and the Army Corps finalized WOTUS at the tail end of last year, effectively bringing back the definition, with some updates, as it was before the Obama administration amended it in 2015.
WOTUS defines which “navigable waters” are subject to federal regulation, which has extended beyond rivers and lakes to other bodies, including some kinds of ditches, in previous renditions.
“Farmer after farmer in my district talked about the litigation they’ve become mired in” because of WOTUS before the Trump administration’s revision, Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) said during the hearing.
The party has celebrated the Trump-era definition of WOTUS, which narrowed the kinds of waters that can be regulated but was invalidated by a federal court.
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Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), ranking member of the committee, opposed the resolution and stressed that Republicans’ effort would not bring clarity to the often-litigated WOTUS or bring back the Trump-era definition.