{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://marymiller.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-mary-miller-introduces-house-companion-bill-define-wotus-act", "Congresswoman Mary Miller Introduces the House Companion Bill to the Define WOTUS Act of 2021\u00a0to Protect Farmers and Ranchers from Biden\u2019s EPA", "2021-07-22", "2021", "2021-07", "Republican", "House", "IL", "Mary E. Miller", "M001211", "marymiller.house.gov", "marymiller", "https://marymiller.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON - Congresswoman Mary Miller (IL-15) introduced the House companion bill to Senator Mike Braun's (R-IN) Define WOTUS Act of 2021. This bill was introduced by Congresswoman Miller to prevent President Biden\u2019s radical cabinet secretaries from telling farmers and ranchers how to use and regulate their own land.\n\nDuring the Obama Administration, the definition of \u201cWaters of the United States\u201d was altered, which trampled on the property rights of farmers, ranchers, and landowners in rural America.\n\nPresident Trump\u2019s Navigable Waters Protection Rule provided long-overdue certainty and clarity for landowners affected by the scope of WOTUS\u2019s jurisdiction.\n\n\"The Obama Administration vastly expanded the scope and power of the federal government in order to regulate and punish rural America,\u201d Miller said. \"This bill keeps unelected Washington bureaucrats off our farms and sends a clear message to the radical leftists in the Biden Administration that we will not allow them to trample on our rights.\u201d\n\nThe Define WOTUS Act of 2021 codifies a congressionally-mandated definition. This will ensure consistency in the rule, since the Biden Administration has announced they plan to revisit the WOTUS rule, likely overturning the Trump rule and adopting the overburdensome Obama-era rule.\n\n\u201cRegulations for what falls under \u2018Waters of the U.S.\u2019 have ping-ponged back and forth for years,\u201d said Senator Braun. \u201cFarmers and families need a reasonable, practical definition for WOTUS, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m glad to hear Representative Mary Miller is taking up the fight in the House to complement the Define WOTUS Act in the Senate.\"\n\nIf passed, the bill would reassert Congressional responsibility to define this important term. The definition in the Define WOTUS Act also makes substantial improvements over various administrative attempts to define the term by clearly outlining what is, and is not, a federally regulated waterway.\n\nIn the initial 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA), Congress failed to define the term \u201cwaters of the United States\u201d (WOTUS), even though the phrase is critical to federal implementation of the CWA.\n\nThe term has been subject to much litigation, including a few Supreme Court cases. In 2015, the Obama Administration finalized a rulemaking to define WOTUS through its so-called \u201cClean Water Rule.\u201d The rule defined WOTUS so broadly that many Americans had trouble interpreting the definition. It was difficult to tell what was or was not a federal waterway without an official determination by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, resulting in an unreasonable regulatory burden on American farmers, businesses, and families.\n\nCongress attempted to repeal the Obama rule through a disapproval resolution sponsored by Senator Joni Ernst. The resolution passed both the House and the Senate but was vetoed by President Obama.\n\nOn February 28, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) to revise or rescind the Obama-era rule. EPA and the Corps are carrying out Executive Order 13778 through a \u201ctwo-step process\u201d that involves repealing the Obama-era rule, and then replacing it with a Trump Administration rule. EPA has not yet finalized either rule, highlighting that the real failure has been Congress\u2019s inability to define WOTUS.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:03:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://marymiller.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-mary-miller-introduces-house-companion-bill-define-wotus-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8514429684728384, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}