The pen is mightier than the....Misinformation.
President Biden issued the second veto of his Presidency yesterday, preserving his update to the Clean Water Act while clarifying what the rule means for farmers and the agriculture industry.
President Joe Biden vetoed a Congressional Resolution yesterday, backing up his efforts to protect our nation’s waterways by clarifying which rivers, streams, and wetlands are regulated under the Clean Water Act. It was the second veto of his presidency.
As previously reported in The Cocklebur, industrial agriculture groups including the Farm Bureau and checkoff-funded commodity organizations have repeatedly used misinformation and fear tactics to demonize “WOTUS” (the Biden Environmental Protection Agency’s updated definition of “waters of the United States”), pitting it as an enemy to U.S. farmers and ranchers.
In reality, nearly all farming practices—and nearly all farms—are exempt from Clean Water Act regulations.
Biden’s updated WOTUS rule “provides clear rules of the road that will help advance infrastructure projects, economic investments, and agricultural activities — all while protecting water quality and public health,” the President stated in his veto message.
“The increased uncertainty caused by H.J. Res. 27 would threaten economic growth, including for agriculture, local economies, and downstream communities. Farmers would be left wondering whether artificially irrigated areas remain excluded or not.”
Advocates for clean water in rural America applauded the veto.
“Rural water has been under siege for decades. Many rural lakes, wetlands, streams, and rivers are so polluted it’s not advisable to touch the water,” said Erik Hatlestad, Program Director of CURE in rural Minnesota. “We need a strong Clean Water Act to turn back rural water pollution, and President Biden’s veto helps to accomplish that.”
“This is not the last time we will hear about WOTUS. Politicians and factory farms will very likely attempt to make it a 2024 campaign issue. We need to set the record straight,” Hatlestad said.
The WOTUS rule took effect on March 20th, 2023, though legal challenges are threatening implementation. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on a related case, Sackett v. EPA, this summer.
A brief note from Bryce at The Cocklebur World Headquarters:
I appreciate you taking the time to read The Cocklebur, and thank you for the incredibly positive feedback and donations. I’m inspired anew to be reporting on rural America because of readers like you.
I started The Cocklebur for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to focus more of my work on covering rural politics, rural voters, and the enormous impact of political decisions on rural lives. The public sector is simply misunderstood and underappreciated in rural America. I’d like to play a small role in changing that.
The other driving force behind The Cocklebur is an attempt to feature and profile the amazing grassroots leaders and organizers driving change in rural places. There are thousands of people in these communities regularly being written off and ignored by pundits and political consultants. These are people who are fighting fiercely for public schools, for Main Street, for the working class, for the poor. I hope to introduce you to some of them. These are my people, and they are doing the incredibly hard work of democracy, truth-telling, and healing in the toughest of turf.
If you don’t know me, I’ve been a freelance rural reporter since 2017. I am a product of West Missouri cow-calf country and Missouri's finest public schools. I was raised in a family of small town butchers, farmers, begrudging woodcutters, and hunting and fishing types. I have done time as an Honors Student, dishwasher, researcher, grantwriter, activist, policy analyst, tomato picker, greenhouse gas emission accountant, solar panel installer, truck driver, construction laborer, and economic development mercenary.
The Cocklebur is a work-in-progress, and I want to thank you for your patience as I work to make this platform the best it can be.
Anyway, I’m happy you are here. Thanks for the eyeballs and attention. I’ve got your back.
—Bryce
The Cocklebur covers rural policy and politics from a progressive point-of-view. Our work focuses on a tangled rural political reality of dishonest debate, economic and racial disparities, corporate power over our democracy, and disinformation peddled by conservative media outlets. We aim to use facts, data, and science to inform our point-of-view. We wear our complicated love/WTF relationship with rural America on our sleeve.