Senate

McConnell presses Dems on Obama water rule veto

by Jordain Carney - 01/21/16 10:19 AM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pressuring Democrats to back an effort to override President Obama’s veto that preserved his controversial water regulations.

“It was good to see Democratic colleagues stand with the American people when we first passed this bill. I would ask the rest of the Democratic caucus to join with us now to do the right thing,” he said from the Senate floor.

{mosads}The Senate is expected to take a procedural vote Thursday morning on the veto override of the Clean Water, or “Waters of the United States,” rule. The veto resolution originally passed the Senate under the Congressional Review Act with 53 votes.

McConnell added that Obama’s veto showed two things: that the president “apparently stands with Washington bureaucrats on this issue, not the American people,” and that he “thinks Americans’ clean water rules should be based on Washington politics.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation extends the administration’s oversight of small bodies of water, including streams and wetlands.

McConnell, however, said that the rule is “really a federal power grab clumsily masquerading” as a clean water rule. Republicans largely believe the new rules are an overreach by the Obama administration.

If Republicans fail to get cloture on Thursday, the Senate’s attempt to try to override the president’s veto is expected to be indefinitely postponed.

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) fired back that the attempt to override Obamas’s veto underscores that “Republicans remain determined to undermine the environment.”

Tags Barack Obama Environmental Protection Agency EPA Mitch McConnell Waters of the U.S. rule