In a voice vote Tuesday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new energy bill that moves to defund the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial Waters of the U.S. Rule.
The defunding is part of a $37.4 billion bill to fund the Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several energy and water projects.
Representatives from Oklahoma and other states used a voice vote to reject an amendment from Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., that would have allowed the administration to spend federal money in support of the rule.
WOTUS has been opposed by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as well as U.S. Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford. Farm groups have also fought the measure that they call “overreach” by the federal government.
Environmentalists responded with criticism to the House action as the Natural Resources Defense Council said the Clean Water Rule was “important.”
“This year’s bill continues the tradition of House leadership larding up the annual appropriations bills with anti-environmental policy riders in their ongoing gambit to undermine popular environmental standards,” stated the NRDC in an article that also described the vote as “Republican leadership’s assault on the environment.”
The NRDC and 17 other groups opposed the legislation and in a May 23 letter urged Congress to vote against it. President Obama’s advisors have recommended he veto the bill.
