Senator Todd Young (R-IN) and Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) joined all 47 of their Senate Republican colleagues in introducing a formal challenge to the Biden administration’s recently revised Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule through a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval.
The resolution comes after the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revised the WOTUS rule in December 2022 that could end up punishing more Indiana farmers and landowners.
“The EPA’s decision to rewrite the WOTUS rule will create red tape for Hoosier farmers and builders who need regulatory clarity,” said Young. “This is an unnecessary bureaucratic overreach that I have long opposed, and I will fight to check these unfair, confusing, and costly regulations.”
The EPA’s WOTUS rule is also being challenged by the U.S. Supreme Court in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (2023). The case involves an Idaho couple who were denied the opportunity to build a new home on residential property they owned because the EPA argued that their property contained wetlands subject to EPA regulation under the Clean Water Act. The case has been in litigation since 2008 and was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Oct. 2022. A decision is expected before the end of the court’s term in late June or early July.
The full text of the Senate resolution can be found HERE.
A one-page synopsis from Senate EPW Committee Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) can be found HERE.
