Senate Votes to Repeal Biden Regulation of US Waters, Wetlands

On March 29, 53 – 43, the Senate approved a resolution to repeal senate legislation from the Biden administration regarding U.S. waters and wetlands.

The House approved the disapproval resolution on March 9, 227 – 198. The Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress 60 days to overturn rules, was used to pass it. The quality will likely be vetoed by President Joe Biden, though. Republicans are unlikely to win the required two-thirds majority to reverse a veto.

The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) and the Department of the Army announced in June 2021 that they would change what is referred to as” waters in the United States”( WOTUS ). On January 18, the ordinance was made public in the Federal Register, and it went into effect on March 20.

In a speech dated December 30, 2022, EPA Administrator Michael Regan stated that Congress recognized the importance of protecting our waterways when it passed the Clean Water Act 50 years ago.

” EPA is working to present a strong concept of WOTUS that safeguards our nation waters, strengthens economic chance, and protects peoples’ health while providing greater certainty for farmers, ranchers,and landowners” after considerable stakeholder engagement and building on what we’ve learned from previous rules.

Michael Connor, the assistant director of the military for legal works, stated in the same speech that” this last rule recognizes the crucial role played by the country’s water resources in communities across the country.” The sharp and tenable description of the United States’ waters will enable more efficient and effective implementation and give farmers, field, environmental organizations, and other stakeholders the simplicity they have long sought.

However, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito( R – W. Va. ) claimed in a statement that WOTUS is onerous and detrimental to individual landowners.

A lot of our private landlords will be subject to federal rules in a way that it has never been before, according to Capito.” WOTUS is ] going to be expensive, destructive, and it will put that burden on them.

Therefore, I anticipate that this will receive republican support in the US Senate. It has already been approved by the House. It will be delivered to the president’s desk, and we will once more challenge him to address the nation as a whole, asking,” Mr. President, are you going to talk to our homeland of America where your intrusion and your on conditions on the waters are gonna many so many people?”

The Nevada Appeal was informed by Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto( D-Nev. ) that WOTUS harms her state.

According to her, this governing rule forces our national governments, farmers, ranchers, and businesses to jump through pointless red tape because Nevada has special water needs that are distinct from those of any other state.

Sam Graves( R – Mo.) Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee praised the Senate’s decision.

Because of its broad concept,” the Administration’s new act is a nuclear bomb aimed directly at our land families, small businesses, home builders, every property owner, and actual areas.” It will only make things more unclear and uncertain, which may hurt our already weak economy, he claimed.