The U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month agreed with Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) that a pending Environmental Protection Agency update of clean water safeguards would cause more problems than it would correct.
By a 261 to 155 margin, the House adopted a bill promoted by Gibbs that would negate the EPA's proposed "Waters of the United States" rule, which aims to clarify the types of waters protected by the Clean Water Act. Gibbs and other detractors say the proposed rule would give the federal government unprecedented authority to regulate virtually anywhere that water flows in the United States, including isolated ponds, ditches, and streams without enough flow to carry pollutants to navigable waters. They said EPA should scrap it and go back to the drawing board. A similar measure the House passed last year didn't become law because the U.S. Senate did not act.
In April, a bipartisan group of senators from agricultural states introduced a Senate counterpart of the bill that was referred to its Committee on Environment and Public Works. President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, arguing it would "derail current efforts to clarify the scope of the CWA, hamstring future regulatory efforts, and deny businesses and communities the regulatory certainty needed to invest in projects that rely on clean water."