[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][title size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]Senate Republicans advance bill to kill Clean Water Act rule[/title][fusion_text]Wednesday, June 10th 2015
Senate Republicans advanced a bill to kill the Obama administration’s Clean Water Act rule and set sweeping restrictions on what streams and wetlands the federal government can regulate. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee split 11-9 along party lines in approving the bill (S 1140), which would require the administration to write a new rule in consultation with state and local governments. The bill would set limits on what wetlands could be regulated and alter the way tributaries are identified. The measure, which is similar to a bill that has already passed the House, has little chance of becoming law, given the likelihood of a presidential veto and strong Democratic opposition. As of Tuesday, just three of the bill’s 38 cosponsors were Democrats. But a floor vote will put some other Democrats on the spot, and the debate allows Republicans to build the case for blocking implementation of the rule at least temporarily through the appropriations process. House appropriators are separately moving fiscal 2016 spending bills that would bar the administration from enforcing the rule starting Oct. 1. A House Appropriations subcommittee included such a provision in the Interior-Environment bill the panel approved Wednesday morning. The House earlier passed the fiscal 2016 Energy and Water spending bill with a similar policy rider. The rule, released May 27, defines what ditches, wetlands, ponds and other features can be regulated under the Clean Water Act as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The Senate bill would stop the EPA and Corps from using high water marks as a way to determine whether something is a tributary and would instead require the agencies to use a flow test, relying in part on the U.S. Geological Survey’s hydrology maps. Field visits also would be required. Committee Republicans voted down a series of Democratic amendments that would have essentially allowed the administration to ignore the bill’s requirements if officials decided they would harm water quality or increase costs. Separately Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the federal regulatory process that focused in part on what Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., said was the administration’s heavy-handed approach in developing the WOTUS rule.
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