Click here or on the image above to watch Senator Capito’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, delivered remarks at the weekly Republican Senate Leadership press conference on her formal challenge to the Biden administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule through a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval.
Senator Capito’s remarks below:
“I want to, kind of, piggyback on what Joni was saying about over-burdensome regulations.
“I'm ranking member on Environment and Public Works. I have 49 Republicans on a measure to take down this administration’s and the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. regulation that they put out.
“We are looking to our friends over on the House side, who passed a Congressional Review Act to take that regulation down.
“They passed it out of committee last week. We're expecting them to pass it out on Friday, out of the full House, and we will have it on the floor here the following week.
“So, several of you have asked me—and I expect it to pass on the Senate floor—‘Well, the president has issued a notice of veto, so why do this?’
“I said, ‘Well, first of all, is he going to stick by what he says? We don't know.’ We saw what happened last week, or this week, and so I think that's a logical question.
“The second reason is, because it's the right thing to do.
“They are rewriting laws. There's a pending court case at the Supreme Court right now that's going to make a lot of the determinations. They couldn't wait for that. They had to redesignate waters that had never been designated Waters of the U.S.
“It hurts farmers, ranchers, developers, miners— anybody who wants to expand their footprint. It will make much more regulatory burden on the folks that Joni was with last weekend, and all the way from the individual, all the way to larger entities.
“So this, again, I think is the voice of the majority. The voice of the majority of the representation here in the United States Senate and House, reflecting the country in its entirety, is going to tell the president: Stop with the overregulation, the over-burdensome rules you have put forward.
“Let’s get back to some reasonable, accomplishable, rules and regulations so we can move forward.”
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