President Joe Biden has vetoed a Congressional measure that would have overturned his administration’s directives for the Waters of the United States (WOTUS).
The measure was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives more or less along party lines, with Republicans supporting the measure and Democrats opposing it. Nevertheless, Democratic senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Jon Tester (D-MN), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) voted in favor, so it passed in the Senate. Nine Democratic House members also voted in favor.
“A Congressional Review Act resolution requires a simple majority in both chambers and can’t be filibustered,” observes the Associated Press (AP). It is customarily used during a transition between presidential administrations, enabling the incoming administration to overturn regulations issued by the previous one.
The Congressional move was to a large extent symbolic, because it would have required President Biden to sign legislation overturning regulations issued by his own administration—which was very close to unthinkable.
It does not seem likely that the House or Senate will be able to provide a two thirds majority vote that would overturn the veto.
The measure reflects widespread concerns among agricultural interests that the Biden administration’s WOTUS policy is too restrictive.
House Agriculture Committee chair Glen “GT” Thompson (R-PA) commented, “America’s farmers, ranchers, and landowners have made it clear this WOTUS definition is overly burdensome and unworkable, only exacerbating the regulatory uncertainty rural communities currently face.”
WOTUS controversies, which now span three presidential administrations, have pitted environmental interests against those of agriculture in a manner that has become familiar over the past half century.
Biden defended his veto by saying that if the measure were enacted, “farmers would be left wondering whether artificially irrigated areas remain excluded or not. Construction crews would be left wondering whether their waterfilled gravel pits remain excluded or not. The resolution would also negatively affect tens of millions of United States households that depend on healthy wetlands and streams.?
The administration’s WOTUS regulations have been suspended in Texas and Idaho through judicial rulings. The next major step in the story will come in June, when the Supreme Court issues its ruling on the Sackett v. EPA case, which will bear heavily on the measure’s future.
