By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A long-running fight against a reinterpretation of the Clean Water Act continues.
President Joe Biden vetoed a bill sponsored by Republican Congressman Sam Graves of northern Missouri that would overturn the administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.
Graves, speaking on AgriTalk broadcast on KFEQ, says his jaw dropped when the president vetoed the measure.
“You know, the president, he campaigned on standing with farmers and ranchers and he turned his back on agriculture and that’s unfortunate,” Graves tells AgriTalk host Chip Flory. “He sided with radical environmentalists who want to destroy our very way of life. And it’s so unfortunate, it really is.”
Graves contends that WOTUS gives the EPA unprecedented power to regulate private property.
“This is about control. It’s about controlling your property,” Graves insists. “The government controlling how you use your property.”
Graves’ bill passed the House on a 227-to-198 vote, then passed the Senate on a 53-43 vote. Neither vote is close to the two-thirds majority Graves needs to override the veto.
Graves says the veto surprised him.
“I mean, my jaw just dropped when I saw the veto,” according to Graves. “I just couldn’t believe they chose to do that and particularly with an issue that has gone back and forth, back and forth. The Supreme Court is going to rule in September. He turned his back. That’s what he did.”
WOTUS is at the center of the case Sackett v. EPA under review by the US Supreme Court. An Idaho couple is challenging the ruling of the EPA that land upon which they planned to build a home is off limits, because it is considered a wetland. A ruling by the Supreme Court should come out later this year.
The Biden Administration revived WOTUS, first proposed during the Obama Administration, yet never implemented due to court challenges. President Trump scuttled the rule.
Graves accuses the federal government of huge overreach by pushing WOTUS and claims it could ride roughshod over property rights.
“You hear the opposition go on and on and on about how farmers and ranchers are exempt,” Graves says. “And, yet, the fact of the matter is all of the problems that I’m seeing in my district are coming from farmers and ranchers. They’re being sued by the Corps of Engineers or the EPA over things that they are trying to do on their property which is exactly what’s happening on the case before the Supreme Court.”
Graves says he will try to muster the votes to override the veto, but acknowledges it’s a heavy lift.