A group of 45 senators and 154 House members have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court calling for it to reverse a lower court ruling on Waters of the US (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The lawmakers, led by Senate Environment and Public Works Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and House Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-Mo.), detailed several arguments for the nation’s top court to narrow the determination of what counts as navigable waters under the CWA. They indicated the case marks the chance for the nation’s top court to “put the genie back in the bottle” on WOTUS and reverse the lower court ruling as failing to do so would mean “the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ will continue to whipsaw from one administration to the next.”
A separate filing by the American Farm Bureau Federation and 13 other groups notes the organizations grow “virtually every agricultural commodity produced commercially in the United States, including much of the U.S. wheat, corn, rice, soybean, cotton, wool, sugar, milk, poultry, egg, pork, lamb, and beef supply,” adding that producers face “significant problems” from the shifting definitions of WOTUS. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case later this year.
