Opponents say they will continue to fight the EPA’s “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) regulation despite losing their long-shot attempt at a legislative veto of the rule. “The president and the EPA just keep pushing. But we won’t stop either,” said president Zippy Duvall of the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has led rural opposition to WOTUS. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, sponsor of the congressional resolution of disapproval, said, “I remain committed to fighting for those across our state who are negatively impacted by this reckless rule.” President Obama vetoed the resolution and the Senate, on a party-line vote of 52-40, with 60 votes needed for passage, failed to override the veto.
Two Republican senators, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, asked the Justice Department to investigate EPA’s use of social media during consideration of WOTUS, said DTN. The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the EPA improperly used social media to promote the regulation, which defines the upstream reach of clean-water laws.