Biden vetoes Republican-led effort to undo new clean water rules

President Biden issued the second veto of his presidency Thursday to protect a rule issued by his administration that set new bounds for which bodies of water are protected under the Clean Water Act.

Biden previously promised to veto the GOP-led measure, which would have overturned new protections for many of the nation’s waterways, including wetlands and small streams. Republicans argued that the Biden administration’s new rule would have harmed businesses, farmers, manufacturers and developers by forcing “sweeping changes to the federal government’s authority to regulate what is considered a navigable water.”

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who introduced the measure in the House, described the administration’s effort to expand the list of what waterways can be protected under the Clean Water Act as an “incredibly intrusive federal overreach.”

“It’s time to ditch Biden’s WOTUS rule and stop these attacks on American farmers,” Graves said on Twitter on March 29, when the Senate passed the measure. “We shouldn’t need a permission slip from some bureaucrat in Washington to take care of our own land.”

The Senate approved the legislation last month under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn some executive branch regulations. Four Democrats - Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) - voted in favor of the legislation alongside Republicans and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.). In the House, the measure passed in a bipartisan vote of 227 to 198.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who shepherded the legislation through the Senate, on Thursday said that Biden, with his veto, is “ignoring the will of a bipartisan majority in Congress.”

“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, the top Republican on the Committee on Environment and Public Works, said in a statement.

Biden defended the rule Thursday in a statement, arguing that the revised definition of “Waters of the United States” provides “clear rules of the road that will help advance infrastructure projects, economic investments, and agricultural activities - all while protecting water quality and public health.”

The legislation to overturn the rule, the president added, would have threatened economic growth.

“Farmers would be left wondering whether artificially irrigated areas remain excluded or not,” Biden said in a letter to Congress. “Construction crews would be left wondering whether their water-filled 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.”

In a tweet Thursday, the president added that the Republican-led measure would have blocked the administration from protecting the nation’s waterways “from destruction and pollution.”

“Every American has a right to clean water,” he said. “This veto protects that right.”