The House approved a resolution of congressional disapproval on Wednesday that vacates the administration’s rule that broadened the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under federal law while expanding federal regulatory power under the Clean Water Act.
“The president needs to put a stop to this harmful rule once and for all,” Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) said. “A majority of the American people’s representatives in both the House and the Senate have now voted, in a resounding manner, to scrap this rule, and the President should listen. This rule was poorly developed, and as a result it will negatively impact the economy, threaten jobs, bring on costly litigation, and infringe upon the rights of landowners, states, and local governments. State and local governments, farmers, small businesses, homebuilders, and many others have voiced significant concerns about the void in which the Administration created this unreasonable, burdensome rule. We can continue to protect our Nation’s waters without the federal government trampling the rights of everyone beneath it.”
S. J. Res 22 was approved by the Senate in November. It now goes to the president’s desk, where the administration has indicated that the measure will be vetoed.
“Since this rule was initially proposed, I have heard from farmers, homebuilders, county and township officials, and state environmental officials that are opposed to this rule,” Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Bob Gibbs (R-OH) said. “The Clean Water Act is intended to strengthen the federal-state partnership, not treat the states as adversaries. Access to and preservation of clean water is important to everyone, including and especially the agriculture community. Making the permitting process more burdensome and more expensive risks the improvements in water quality we have made since 1972. Not only is this a misguided and poorly written rule, the EPA also broke the law in promoting it. By stacking the deck in the public comment process and using what the GAO calls ‘covert propaganda,’ they further undermine their credibility on this issue.”
The final WOTUS rule was published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in June without proper consultation of state and local authorities. The rule was also published without considering the rights, responsibilities, liabilities and budgets of state and local authorities and without a realistic examination of potential economic and legal impacts on private citizens, farmers and other stakeholders.
The federal government’s power to regulate waters and adjacent lands was significantly broadened by the WOTUS rule, which threatens to undermine the long-term, successful federal-state regulatory partnership envisioned by the Clean Water Act. More than 30 states and hundreds of local governments have objected to the rule since it was published.