Alicia Huey, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder and developer from Birmingham, Ala., today issued the following statement after the Senate passed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval that would rescind the Biden administration’s waters of the U.S. rule:
“Today’s bipartisan Senate vote to approve a resolution that would rescind the Biden administration’s waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule comes shortly after House Democrats and Republicans passed an identical measure, and sends a strong message to the administration and American people about the damaging effects of federal overreach. The Biden WOTUS rule does little to strengthen our nation’s water resources but it does radically extend the areas in which home builders are required to get federal wetlands permits by making human-made ditches and isolated ponds on private property subject to federal jurisdiction. Adding uncertainty and delay to the federal permitting process needlessly raises housing costs at a time when the nation is already facing a housing affordability crisis.
“Congress has firmly spoken out against this rule, and a Supreme Court verdict in the pending case of Sackett v. EPA could force the administration to scrap the worst parts of its WOTUS rule and return to the drawing board. The president needs to heed the will of the people by signing this resolution into law and directing his administration to craft a new WOTUS rule that restores common sense and predictability to the federal wetlands permitting process while maintaining environmental protection of our nation’s waterways.”