Senate Defeats Effort To Defund Clean Water Rule That Protects Wetlands

"WASHINGTON — The Senate narrowly defeated a controversial amendment Thursday that would have stripped funding for clean water protections and ensured defeat of a $37.5 billion energy and water spending bill.

The vote was the first big test of Senate leaders' effort to pass all 12 annual funding bills that detail how federal agencies must spend billions of taxpayer dollars in 2017. An amendment by Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., to bar funding for a 2014 Obama administration rule to protect streams and wetlands failed by a vote of 56-42. It required 60 votes to pass.

Congress has not passed all 12 spending bills by the Oct. 1 deadline since 1994. That failure has resulted in an annual funding crisis each fall in which lawmakers scramble to patch together one massive, hodgepodge spending bill at the last minute to prevent a government shutdown."

Erin Kelly reports for USA TODAY April 21, 2016.

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