The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill to obviate the recently issued “waters of the United States” rule that defines the upstream reach of the Clean Water Act. The bill “would send the Obama administration back to the drawing board … setting new criteria for how a future rule should be developed and what streams and wetlands should and shouldn’t qualify for Clean Water Act protection under it,” said Greenwire. “The fight now heads to the Senate floor where the vote margin is much closer. A test vote in March suggested that the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster could be within reach for opponents of the rule.”
Committee chairman Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said the bill would keep the EPA focused on preventing pollution of navigable waters. The American Farm Bureau Federation, which spearheaded opposition to the so-called WOTUS rule, said the final EPA version was an example of regulatory over-reach and the Senate bill would require the agency to consider “the valid concerns of farmers, ranchers, home builders and others” in writing a new rule.