On March 9th, The Conservative Review reported that the House of Representatives voted 227-198 Thursday to overturn the Biden administration’s “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule. It will be interesting to see what happens to the bill in the Senate.
The article reports:
Republicans say the rule places a costly burden on landowners, ranchers, and farmers by claiming regulatory control over lands containing small streams and wetlands. All but one Republican, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, voted to overturn the rule, with nine Democrats joining.
…“President Biden’s new WOTUS rule is a nuclear warhead aimed squarely at our farm families, small businesses, homebuilders, every property owner, and entire communities because of its overreaching definition,” Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer said in a statement.
“Cloaked under the guise of clean water, all this rule does is expand the federal government’s control over states, localities, and private landowners, making it harder to farm, build, and generate economic prosperity,” he said. “I encourage the Senate to pass this commonsense resolution to push back against onerous rules like this one.”
The article concludes:
“When Congressman Graves and I introduced resolutions of disapproval in the both the Senate and House, we wanted to show Congress is united in defending millions of Americans from President Biden’s overreaching navigable waters rule,” Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said in a statement. “I commend the House for taking an important step today to overturn the Biden WOTUS rule, and look forward to leading my Senate colleagues in sending it to the president’s desk.”
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The law was written so broadly that a mud puddle that appeared after a rainstorm could come under government control. Just for the record, you can’t navigate the drainage ditch that was dug in the yard because clay doesn’t drain!