Republican elected officials and the Missouri Farm Bureau are venting frustration with President Joe Biden's recent action on the Waters of the United States rule.
Biden on April 6 vetoed a congressional resolution that would have overturned the WOTUS rule his administration issued last December. Biden had promised to veto the resolution before it arrived at his desk by a vote of 53-43 in the Senate and 227-198 in the House.
Congressman Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, championed the resolution in the House along with a Republican colleague from North Carolina.
"Once again, President Biden has chosen to side with far-left environmental activists over everyday Americans, as well as majorities in both Houses of Congress," Graves said in a statement. "This veto is just the latest regulatory assault on America's families, farmers, small businesses, builders and entire communities already suffering under the president's disastrous policies of the last two years. I urge more of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to recognize the economic pain that these kinds of costly, overreaching policies are inflicting on Americans across the country."
Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins echoed the sentiment in a statement Monday, saying he was "extremely disappointed" in the president's veto.
"For years, MOFB has advocated for clean water and clear rules for Missouri's farmers and ranchers. The Biden administration's WOTUS rule greatly misses that mark," he said. "With more than 110,000 miles of streams across the Show-Me state, this is not hyperbole. It is certain that this rule will harm landowners by creating confusion over what is labeled a jurisdictional water, causing them to hire attorneys and consultants to navigate the process and costing precious time and resources."
"Through his veto, it is clear that President Biden prefers more government control and confusion, rather than clarity and consistency under the Clean Water Act," Hawkins continued.
Missouri Treasurer Vivek Malek also weighed in.
"Government simply needs to get off the backs of farmers. This is a dangerous step in the opposite direction," Malek wrote on Twitter, describing the new WOTUS rule as an "existential threat" to "rural Missouri's way of life."
Biden defended his veto in a letter to the House. He said the new WOTUS rule carefully determines which bodies of water are subject to federal regulations under the Clean Water Act and offers clear guidance for the advancement of infrastructure projects, agricultural activities and economic investments.
If he signed the resolution, he said, Americans would be left without a clear WOTUS definition.
"Farmers would be left wondering whether artificially irrigated areas remain excluded or not. Construction crews would be left wondering whether their water-filled gravel pits remain excluded or not," the letter states. "The resolution would also negatively affect tens of millions of United States households that depend on healthy wetlands and streams."
The Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers announced the new WOTUS definition about four months ago and began implementing it March 20. Developed through previous iterations of the rule and a series of court challenges, the updated rule was intended to settle a debate spanning three presidential administrations around what bodies of water the federal agencies can regulate.
The 2023 definition is based on a pre-2015 regulatory structure and divides waters into seven categories: traditional navigable waters, territorial seas, interstate waters, impoundments, tributaries, adjacent wetlands and additional waters.
It also includes eight categories of waters that are excluded from Clean Water Act regulations. Those include: previously converted cropland, waste treatment systems including ponds or lagoons, ditches draining only dry land, artificially irrigated areas, artificial lakes and ponds, artificial swimming or reflecting pools, land depressions filled with water and low-volume swales or erosional features.
Shortly after the rule was announced, Missouri and 22 other states filed a lawsuit seeking to block it from taking effect. The Missouri Farm Bureau has also been a vocal opponent of the rule. A federal judge has since blocked the rule in Texas and Idaho.
In a statement to the News Tribune on Monday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey reiterated his plan to get the rule blocked in Missouri.
"President Biden's interpretation of WOTUS is nothing short of a land grab," he said. "It's an attempt to turn Missouri agricultural land over to federal, unelected bureaucrats at the EPA, and we're not going to let it happen. We're seeking a court order to block his unconstitutional land grab, and we're confident the Court will do the right thing to protect American farmers."
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican who fought previous WOTUS definitions as the state's attorney general, said defending generational farmers and ranchers from federal overreach is one of his top priorities in Washington, D.C.
"Farmers and ranchers are the original stewards of the land, and know how to preserve it for generations to come," he said in a statement after voting in favor of the resolution in March. "The Waters of the United States rule was a gross attempt to expand the power of Biden's army of administrators and place dry creek beds and drainage ditches under federal control."
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican who sponsored the resolution in the Senate, and said Biden's veto ignored the will of a bipartisan majority in Congress, leaves Americans in limbo and cripples projects with red tape.
"There's a reason those who work in agriculture, building, mining and small businesses of all kinds across America strongly supported our effort to block the Biden waters rule, and I'm disappointed the president chose to stand by his blatant executive overreach," Capito said in a statement.
Hawkins said he's working on next steps with Missouri's congressional delegation.
Graves said he's looking forward to voting to overturn the president's veto.