Biden vetoes congressional resolution that seeks to toss EPA water protections

Defending his administration’s actions on clean water, President Joe Biden on Thursday vetoed a congressional resolution that would have overturned protections for the nation’s waterways that Republicans have criticized as overly intrusive.

Republicans — and some Democrats — targeted an Environmental Protection Agency rule protecting thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, labeling it an environmental overreach that harms businesses, developers and farmers.

In separate votes, the House and Senate used the Congressional Review Act to enact a measure blocking the clean water rule, which was adopted at the end of last year.

In his veto message Thursday, Biden said the bipartisan measure would leave Americans without a clear definition of “Waters of the United States.” A dispute over the term — and the breadth of the landmark Clean Water Act — stretches across at least three presidential administrations.

Environmentalists and Democratic presidents have pushed to broaden the definition and protect more waterways from pollution, while right-leaning groups and the Trump administration argued that protecting fewer waterways would benefit builders, farmers and business.

“The increased uncertainty” caused by the congressional action “would threaten economic growth, including for agriculture, local economies and downstream communities,″ Biden said in his veto statement.