Congress approves measure to toss Biden’s water protections
Posted on April 2, 2023
According to Associated Press, Congress on 3/29/23 approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s protections for the nation’s waterways that Republicans have criticized as a burden on business, advancing a measure that President Joe Biden has promised to veto.
Republicans have targeted the Biden administration’s protections for thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, labeling it an environmental overreach that harms businesses, developers and farmers.
The Senate vote is the latest development in a long-running fight over the definition of “waters of the United States,” which establishes the breadth of the Clean Water Act’s protections. Environmentalists and the Biden administration have pushed to broaden the definition and protect more waterways from pollution while right- leaning groups and the Trump administration have argued that protecting fewer waterways would benefit builders, farmers and business.
By MICHAEL PHILLIS and MARY CLARE JALONICK 3.29.23