President Biden vetoed legislation Thursday aimed at scuttling a new administration rule giving the federal government more power over small waterways, a regulation that critics fear will jeopardize farmland.
Congress dealt a major bipartisan rebuke last week by passing a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify Mr. Biden’s regulation known as the Waters of the United States, a rule that boosts the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental authority over streams and wetlands.
In his veto message to Congress, the president said rolling back the rule would threaten the environment, local economies and agriculture because of “increased uncertainty” over which waterways the EPA has jurisdiction.
“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,” Mr. Biden said. “The resolution would also negatively affect tens of millions of United States households that depend on healthy wetlands and streams.”
It was Mr. Biden’s second veto. His first, on March 20, blocked Republican-led legislation that sought to overturn a Department of Labor rule allowing investment managers to consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues when choosing investment options.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a lead author of the vetoed environmental legislation, criticized what she called the president’s “blatant executive overreach.”
“President Biden is ignoring the will of a bipartisan majority in Congress, leaving millions of Americans in limbo, and crippling future energy and infrastructure projects with red tape,” Ms. Capito said. “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.”
Four Senate Democrats and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who caucuses with Democrats, voted with Republicans to scuttle Mr. Biden’s water rule over fears the EPA could threaten farmland by claiming protection over small bodies of water like creeks, ravines and drainage ditches.
Nine House Democrats backed the GOP-led effort to tank the regulation.
The legislation now goes back to the Republican-controlled House, where lawmakers do not have enough votes to override Mr. Biden’s veto with the necessary two-thirds majority.
However, the Supreme Court may have the last say.
Opponents of Mr. Biden’s rule hope the high court will intervene in their favor later this year when it rules on Sackett v. EPA, in which justices will determine whether wetlands and other bodies of water are under the EPA’s jurisdiction.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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