S. 787: Clean Water Restoration Act

111th Congress · introduced 2009-04-02 · Environmental Protection · Latest: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 685.

federal

Follow this bill, step by step

Where it came from: introduced 2009-04-02 · official record
Who proposed it: Sen. Feingold, Russell D. [D-WI] · what a sponsor is
What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
Where it stands now: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 685. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Clean Water Restoration Act

Plain summary

Clean Water Restoration Act - Reaffirms federal jurisdiction over all waters of the United States and overturns the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. United States Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos v. United States. Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to replace the term "navigable waters" that are subject to such Act with the term "waters of the United States," defined to mean all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, and natural ponds, all tributaries of any of such waters, and all impoundments of the foregoing. Excludes from such term: (1) prior converted cropland; and (2) waste treatment systems, including treatment ponds or lagoons designed to meet the requirements of such Act (other than cooling ponds). Applies the waste treatment systems exclusion only to manmade bodies of water which neither were originally created in waters of the United States (such as disposal areas in wetlands) nor resulted from the impoundment of waters of the United States. Declares that nothing in such Act affects the authority of the Secretary of the Army or the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the provisions of the Clean Water Act related to discharges: (1) composed entirely of return flows from irrigated agriculture; (2) of stormwater runoff from certain oil, gas, and mining operations composed entirely of flows from precipitation runoff conveyances, which are not contaminated by or in contact with specified materials; (3) of dredged or fill materials resulting from normal farming, silviculture, and ranching activities, from upland soil and water conservation practices, or from activities with respect to which a state has an approved water quality regulatory program; or (4) of dredged or fill materials for the maintenance of currently serviceable structures, the construction or maintenance of farm or stock ponds, irrigation ditches, or farm, forest, or temporary roads for moving mining equipment in accordance with best management practices, or the construction of temporary sedimentation basins on construction sites for which discharges do not include placement of fill material into the waters of the United States. Requires the Administrator and the Secretary to promulgate regulations to implement this Act within 18 months.

Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to Senate with amendment(s)), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

A “Yea” vote

If it passes both chambers and is signed, it becomes law.

A “Nay” vote

If it is not passed, current law stays as it is.

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Clean Water Restoration Act

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to Senate with amendment(s))

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The strongest published arguments

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Alternatives

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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Feingold, Russell D. [D-WI] · 24 cosponsors

Cost estimate: CBO cost estimate: S. 787, Clean Water Restoration Act (2009-08-07); CBO cost estimate: S. 787, Clean Water Restoration Act (2009-08-07)

Cosponsors on this site

Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR)

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (2)

Jurisdiction: The area or the matters a government or court has authority over.
Rulemaking: The process agencies use to write regulations that carry out laws passed by Congress or a legislature. Usually an agency publishes a proposed rule, takes public comments, then publishes a final rule.

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to Senate with amendment(s))
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-111s787.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/111/s>

Record fed-us-cong111-s787 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong111 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong111