House fails to override Biden’s veto of resolution to overturn EPA water rule

(CNN) — The House of Representatives on Tuesday failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a resolution to overturn an Environmental Protection Agency water rule.

Republicans have called the rule federal overreach and argue it places a burden on the agriculture community by being too restrictive in defining what is a navigable waterway. Democrats counter, saying the rule is critical for protecting the nation’s waterways and safeguarding clean water.

A two-thirds majority vote would have been needed in both chambers of Congress to override the veto — a high threshold that was not expected to be met. The final vote was 227-196 with 10 Democrats crossing over to vote with Republicans to override the veto, and one Republican voting with the Democrats against the resolution.

Biden vetoed the GOP-led resolution earlier this month. “I just vetoed a bill that attempted to block our Administration from protecting our nation’s waterways — a resource millions of Americans depend on — from destruction and pollution,” the president said at the time. “Let me be clear: Every American has a right to clean water. This veto protects that right.”

Biden’s announcement marked both the second veto of his presidency and the second veto he had issued in recent weeks, illustrating how power dynamics in Washington have shifted since Republicans became the majority party in the House of Representatives at the beginning of this year.

The House and Senate had previously passed the resolution to rescind the waterway rule.

In the Senate, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema joined Republicans in support of the resolution to overturn the rule.

Proponents of the resolution have argued the rule amounts to burdensome, executive branch overreach.

“President Biden is ignoring the will of a bipartisan majority in Congress, leaving millions of Americans in limbo, and crippling future energy and infrastructure projects with red tape,” West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who led the joint resolution in the Senate, said in response to Biden’s veto.

Last month, the House failed to override the president’s veto of a measure to overturn a retirement investment rule that allows managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments.

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