The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to approve today legislation that would bar the EPA from implementing its Waters of the United States rule during the fiscal year that opens on Oct 1. Known as WOTUS, the rule defines the upstream reach of clean water laws and is under challenge in a federal appeals court.
The WOTUS rider was written into the $33 billion appropriations bill for Interior Department, EPA and related agencies by subcommittee chair Lisa Murkowski. In a statement, Murkowski said the bill blocked excessive federal regulation. In the past, Murkowski called WOTUS a “huge federal land grab,” says the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Farm groups have used similar language against the regulation.
A three-judge appellate panel in Cincinnati has stayed implementation of WOTUS while it decides a welter of challenges to the regulation. The appeals court issued a schedule of action on the case that extends into mid-February 2017, said DTN. The schedule would put defense of WOTUS during trial in the court in the hands of the administration that takes office in January.
Besides the WOTUS rider, the appropriations bill also proposes $3.79 billion for fighting wildfires as part of a plan to end the practice of “fire borrowing,” in which the government diverts money from other programs to cover the expense of a severe fire season. The $3.79 billion is equal to the 10-year average cost of wildfires and the bill earmarks an additional $700 million in emergency funds in case of need.