NAHB Helps Spur Congressional Action on WOTUS

At NAHB’s urging, 27 Republican members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have sent a joint letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) calling on the Biden administration to adhere to the Supreme Court’s Sackett ruling pertaining to the definition of “waters of the United States (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

This issue was put on full display when NAHB testified before Congress on Sept. 11 that the administration’s latest interpretation of the WOTUS rule has further muddied the regulatory process and exacerbated the housing affordability crisis.

NAHB and our allies in the Waters Advocacy Coalition launched a concerted effort to urge the members of the House panel to notify the administration of their concerns that the EPA and Corps are failing to adhere to the Sackett decision and sowing uncertainty by failing to provide guidance to the public on how the agencies plan to implement the WOTUS regulatory definition.

In their letter to the leaders of the EPA and Corps, the House members said: “This Administration is not adhering to Sackett, attempting to maintain broad Federal overreach, slow-walking implementation, failing to provide adequate direction to regulated communities, and delaying projects which require certainty under a CWA permitting regime.”

In further citing the administration’s lack of clarity, transparency and direction on WOTUS since the Sackett verdict, Republican lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee also requested information related to delayed agency decisions that are preventing important projects from moving forward.

Read the full letter.