WOTUS Rollback Likely Heads Toward a Dead End

The future of WOTUS remains uncertain as the legislation sits between the two Chambers of Congress. The House of Representatives passed a resolution to overturn the Biden Administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule with a bipartisan vote of 227-198.

Although on the surface this may appear as good news, hold your applause because even if the rollback passes through the Senate, President Biden says he’ll veto it.

While it’s likely to be doomed, Western Representative Dan Newhouse says the House success sends a message.

“This rule is not about clean water. Rural communities in the west and across the country, like Central Washington, are dedicated to clean water. And they are the ones being punished by the continuing legal uncertainty that this new final rule brings. As Chairman of the Western Caucus, a bipartisan group of nearly 100 members that advocate for property rights and for clean water, I’ve consistently called on the administration to provide that certainty that we all want. In fact, we’ve led of 200 members in a letter urging the administration to do just that.”

This rule is the third regulatory attempt to define WOTUS in the last 10 years. If it is not halted through congressional action, the final rule will go into effect on March 20.