House vote rejects EPA water rules

WASHINGTON — Despite a threatened presidential veto, Congress voted to scrap new federal rules intended to protect smaller streams, tributaries and wetlands from development and pollution.

The House voted 253-166 on Wednesday for a “resolution of disapproval,” a measure that would void the rules if President Barack Obama signed it. He has said he won’t, and neither the House nor the Senate appears to have enough votes to override a veto. The Senate passed the resolution 53-44 in November.

The Obama administration says the rules from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year would safeguard drinking water for 117 million people. In its veto threat before the Senate vote last year, the White House said that more than 1 in 3 Americans get drinking water from rivers, lakes, and reservoirs that are at risk of pollution from smaller upstream sources.

Republicans and some Democrats representing rural areas say the regulations are costly, confusing and amount to a government power grab, giving federal regulators unprecedented control of small bodies of water on private land. Federal courts have put the rules on hold as judges review lawsuits.