WASHINGTON, June 3, 2015 – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote sometime in the next two weeks on a bill to kill the rule re-defining what streams, ditches and wetlands will be regulated under the Clean Water Act as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). It’s not clear when the bill will get floor time in the Senate, but an aide said that the Obama administration’s release of the final rule May 27 has increased the urgency.
EPW Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told Agri-Pulse he’s surveying agriculture groups around the country to “build a case” for the legislation. The final rule addressed some concerns of farm groups but added some new ones. The rule, for example, could expand regulation of wetlands, experts say. The House passed a similar version of the bill May 12. But it is still unclear whether enough Senate Democrats will join the GOP to advance the measure in the Senate.
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