Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida joined nearly 50 of his fellow lawmakers to block the Obama administration’s overreaching rules for enforcing federal water regulations on private and state-controlled lands.
“Hardworking Americans have had enough of Washington bureaucrats telling them how to use their land,” Rubio said this week. The Environmental Protection Agency “and the Army Corps of Engineers are irresponsible to go forward with this job-killing rule despite the serious concerns raised by farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and small business owners across the country.”
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced a resolution opposing the regulations this week, which Rubio signed onto Thursday. The resolution, if approved, would “nullify” the EPA regulations. But it is still faces a high bar to be veto-proof, which would require a super majority. A number of his colleagues also signed onto the bill, numbering as high as 47 on Friday. Almost a majority.
“I’m proud to join Sen. Ernst and my Senate colleagues in preventing this harmful overreach and expansion of government jurisdiction from taking place,” Rubio said.
Rubio appears to be making opposing EPA regulations a part of his presidential campaign platform. During Wednesday’s CNN presidential debate, he came out firmly against EPA’s emission rules for power plants when asked about climate change. The emission rules are at the center of the president’s agenda to combat global warming.
The EPA Clean Water Rule, also known as the Waters of the United States rule, went into effect last month amid a number of court challenges by states. A federal court in North Dakota stayed the rule for 13 states that filed their lawsuit in the court’s district, but it remains in effect for the rest of the nation.
Critics of the EPA water rule say it extend federal clean water enforcement to ditches and small watering holes that have not been subject to government oversight. Ranchers and farming groups fear that regulations would make them targets for federal enforcement actions by designating small bodies of water on their lands “waterways” in need of oversight from Washington.
Ernst’s resolution was introduced Thursday with 46 of her colleagues, disapproving of the regulation.
A bill was passed at the committee level in the Senate in June nullifying the regulation. Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, who sits on the Environment and Public Works Committee, introduced the measure. It passed 11-9 in a vote split across party lines. No Democrats supported it. The White House said it would veto the measure.
