Barrasso, Lummis Vote to Overturn WOTUS Rule

In December of 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a new rule repealing the Trump-era Navigable Waters Protection Rule. On Wednesday, U.S. Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis (both R-WY), voted to overturn the Biden administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule through a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval. Barrasso said Wyoming doesn’t need the federal government telling people what to do with their water, farms, ranches, and land. Barrasso added that the Biden administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule puts Washington in control of everything from ponds to prairie potholes and the Senate voted to stand with Wyoming’s farmers, ranchers and landowners by striking down this misguided and overreaching rule.

Senator Lummis said our farmers and ranchers do not need the federal government telling them what they can and cannot do on their private land, an irrigation ditch is not a navigable water and should not be under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The new rule changed the definition of Waters of the United States that dramatically expands the authority of the federal bureaucracy. The Congressional Review Act passed by a vote of 53 to 43.