Revises Clean Water Act permitting rules and narrows which waters it covers

§1What it does

Why this matters: A plain-English description of the bill as it was voted on, written by us from the official summary and text.

✎ Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

As passed by the House after committee and floor amendments, this bill would make many changes to the Clean Water Act, the main federal water pollution law, especially to its permit programs.^2,3 It would exclude groundwater, waste treatment systems, some former wetlands converted to cropland, and streams and other features that flow only in direct response to rain or snow from the waters the law covers, and would exempt farm stormwater runoff and certain pesticide applications from discharge permits.^2,3,4 It would also limit state water quality reviews of federally permitted projects to whether discharges meet specific Clean Water Act standards, within a deadline set by the federal permitting agency that cannot exceed the existing one-year cap, let some permits last up to 10 years instead of five, and limit when the Environmental Protection Agency can veto permits to fill wetlands and other waters.³ Lawsuits against dredge-and-fill permits would have to be filed within 60 days by people who raised the issue in public comments, and courts would generally send flawed permits back to agencies rather than cancel them.³

§2Status

§3How Congress voted

Why this matters: The official count.