The earlier vote on a bill introduced by Wyoming Republican John Barrasso, under Senate procedural rules, was squashed by Democrats 57-41. “Legally there is. It did not say every drop of water is controlled by the environmental protection agency, under the Clean Water Act”, said Sen.
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The White House said it strongly opposes Ernst’s resolution and defended the rule.
GOP lawmakers said their bill, dubbed the Federal Water Quality Protection Act, will actually accomplish the administration’s stated goals of protecting the navigable waters traditionally covered under the Clean Water Act while also protecting upstream waters that feed into them. The legislation would require the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rescind their joint Clean Water… “After all, if you’re looking for an excuse to extend the reach of the federal bureaucracy as widely and intrusively as possible, why not just issue a regulation giving bureaucrats dominion over land that has touched a pothole, or a ditch, or a puddle at a few point?”
The EPA says it held more than 400 meetings with stakeholders, reviewed more than 1 million public comments and consulted a report summarizing more than 1,200 peer-reviewed science studies on the effect of small streams and wetlands on the health of larger water bodies. “Foremost, Utah Farm Bureau is concerned with the expansive definition of “tributary” including landscape features that will ultimately bring farmer’s irrigation ditches and Utah’s many dry gullies that flow only during occasional rains under the new WOTUS definition and EPA regulation”.
Currently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has temporarily stayed implementation of the WOTUS rule across the country until they can determine jurisdiction. “That is why I stand with the homeowners, small businesses and family farmers in Arkansas in opposition to the WOTUS mandate”.
“If we’re not able to deauthorize the legislation, I’ll work through the appropriations process to defund it”, said Sen.
NCBA and PLC support the Federal Water Quality Protection Act and will continue to pursue legislation and litigation to withdraw the WOTUS rule.
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A resolution of disapproval is a legislative procedure used to try to overturn regulations and rules put forth by the executive branch. So have environmentalists, who favored the EPA’s position, arguing that major waterways can not improve without addressing remote pollution sources.
