REPUBLICANS PURSUE REPEAL OF BIDEN WOTUS DEFINITION: Congressional Republicans are trying to repeal the Biden administration’s recently finalized definition of "waters of the United States" with dual Congressional Review Act resolutions that were announced this morning.
The joint resolutions of disapproval take aim at the WOTUS rule that EPA and the Army Corps finalized in late December, which effectively brings back WOTUS as it was before 2015 with some changes.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, EPW ranking member, led the Senate effort and criticized the rule and said it “upended regulatory certainty.” Rep. Sam Graves, who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, led the effort in the House.
EPA stood by the rule when it was finalized in December, saying the pre-2015 rule was durable and in place for several decades.
Neither Trump-era nor Obama-era changes to WOTUS have survived court challenges, which drove the Biden EPA to put the pre-2015 definition back in place for now. But EPA does intend to return to WOTUS with a version of its own, expecting a new proposed rule in November.
The Supreme Court is an active player in all this, too. The court is expected to issue an opinion in Sackett v. EPA any week now, which could more clearly define where the administration can and can’t go on WOTUS.