Sponsors (9)
The bill trades broader federal water-quality oversight and more stringent, flexible environmental review for faster permitting, lower compliance costs, and greater state and project‑proponent certainty — benefiting developers and some regulated entities while increasing pollution, legal limits on challenges, and potential costs and risks for downstream communities and taxpayers.
Farmers, pesticide applicators, and many landowners face reduced Clean Water Act permitting requirements (e.g., for routine agricultural stormwater, many pesticide discharges, and certain historically drained croplands), lowering paperwork and compliance costs for agricultural operations.
Utilities, developers, transportation agencies, and other project proponents gain faster, more predictable permitting (shorter review deadlines, longer general permits, clearer timelines and windows for agency action), reducing project delays and transaction costs for infrastructure and development projects.
State governments receive greater authority, clearer processes, and more predictable timetables for assuming and administering Section 404 dredge-and-fill programs, enabling more local control over permitting decisions.
Communities (urban and rural) and downstream water users face higher water‑quality and public‑health risks because multiple carve-outs and narrowed definitions (agricultural stormwater, many pesticide discharges, drained croplands, ephemeral features, groundwater) reduce federal permitting and oversight of pollutant discharges.
Federal environmental oversight and enforcement capacity is weakened (limits on EPA intervention, locking state program approvals, narrowed Section 401, constrained judicial relief and citizen suits), reducing ability to correct harmful permits and hold polluters accountable.
Streamlined permitting, shortened review windows, and reduced interagency consultations increase the risk of cumulative environmental harm and species/habitat impacts by narrowing NEPA/ESA processes and limiting consideration of indirect or aggregated effects.
Based on analysis of 50 sections of legislative text.
Narrows federal water jurisdiction, exempts certain agricultural stormwater and authorized pesticide discharges from NPDES permits, extends and streamlines Corps and NPDES permitting, and tightens judicial review rules.
Introduced June 11, 2025 by Mike Collins · Last progress December 15, 2025
Changes Clean Water Act rules to narrow federal oversight, speed Corps permitting, and limit when EPA or courts can block or require permits. It exempts certain stormwater from agricultural land and many pesticide discharges from NPDES permits, lengthens permit terms, tightens judicial review timelines and remedies, and directs agency rulemaking and staffing to accelerate approvals. The bill also ratifies three State 404 programs, raises some spill‑storage thresholds, creates pilots and Corps land-use reviews for recharge projects, updates compensatory mitigation rules, and authorizes the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission to accept outside funds under limits and reporting requirements.