Just three days after President Joe Biden signed the $1-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, freeing up billions for transportation, energy, broadband and other construction, two federal agencies announced they will repeal a Trump-era water rule and replace it with one put in place in 1986—a move that one group claims will make it harder for those billions to be put to use.
“We’re going back to a regime where we will have to ask a whole bunch of questions [about water jurisdiction] and we’re not sure what jurisdiction it's going to be,” said Nick Goldstein, vice president of legal and regulatory affairs for the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. “It’s working against the goals of the IIJA.”