WICKER, HYDE-SMITH VOTE TO OVERTURN BIDEN WOTUS RULE
Senate Joins House in Approving Joint Resolution to Stop Far-reaching EPA Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today voted with a majority of Senators to overturn the Biden administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.
The Senate voted 53-43 to approve a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval to stop the new WOTUS rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to vastly expand the federal government’s regulatory reach under the Clean Water Act.
“This rule is yet another government overreach from the Biden Administration that threatens to halt progress on necessary infrastructure projects,” Wicker said. “Landowners and businesses need regulatory certainty, and the President has failed to provide it. I am glad to stand with my colleagues in this effort to overturn this unlawful regulation.”
“No one needs a puddle on their property to be regulated by the federal government,” Hyde-Smith said. “This terrible Biden WOTUS rule will affect tens of thousands of small businesses in Mississippi, which would affect how we grow crops or get permits for new projects. What’s worse is that it would require private individuals to prove water on their land is not under the federal government’s Clean Water Act jurisdiction. It must be stopped.”
The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy estimates that the Biden WOTUS rule will affect 43,500 small businesses in Mississippi, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, construction, and manufacturing endeavors.
Wicker and Hyde-Smith were original cosponsors of S.J.Res.7, which was introduced by Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).
The U.S. House of Representatives approved its WOTUS CRA on a 227-198 vote earlier this month, with the support of U.S. Representatives Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), Michael Guest (R-Miss.), and Mike Ezell (R-Miss.).
###