December 19, 2025

PERMIT Act: House Votes to Severely Weaken Clean Water Act

The PERMIT Act poses genuine threats to human health, making it easier for polluters to discharge toxic pollutants into the waters Americans use

By Nancy Stoner, Senior Attorney

On December 11, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on a 221 to 205 vote that will weaken the Clean Water Act. If enacted, this legislation would make it easier to pollute water bodies and will shift to the public the costs of obtaining safe tap water, keeping toxic PFAS, lead, mercury, and arsenic out of the water. It would stick the taxpayer with an average of $8,000 per acre of lost flood protection from the wetlands destruction that this bill would allow. These were among the many bad results this bill would cause as outlined by Rep. Scholten (D-MI) in opposing its passage.

Attacks on clean water are coming from all three branches of government these days. After the Supreme Court’s disastrous Sackett decision in 2013 stripped away many protections, the Trump EPA is trying to go even further to strip protections from an additional 80% of wetlands and 5 million miles of streams. Now an attack from the legislature is moving surprisingly fast, considering the grave risks for everyday Americans.

This bill, which was essentially a package of bad bills bundled together, passed with only 6 Democrats supporting it and only one Republican voting against it. Amendments offered by Republicans did not make any significant improvements to the bill as it came to the floor, and the Democrats amendments were all ruled out of order.

The Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act (HR 3898, “PERMIT Act” or “the Act”), which Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) called “common sense,” is anything but. Among its provisions are the following:

Expanding Opportunities for Industrial Pollution

The PERMIT Act (as passed by the House of Representatives), proposes changes to the Clean Water Act that would negatively impact water quality across the U.S. by significantly expanding opportunities for industry to pollute. Some of the most damaging provisions of this bill would:

• Give U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unfettered authority to exclude waterways from Clean Water Act protection. It is difficult to overstate the magnitude this loophole potentially creates in the Clean Water Act protections this nation has enjoyed for over 50 years. (Sec. 20, “Definition of Navigable Waters”)
• 

  Enbridge pipeline spill in Kalamazoo River, Michigan 2010

  Interfere with the federal/state partnership set up under the 1972 Clean Water Act by taking away the right of states to protect their waters from activities like pipelines and dams that discharge pollution into waterways. (Sec. 5, “Improving Water Quality Certifications and American Energy Infrastructure”)

• End EPA’s ability to make recommendations on the water quality needed to protect public health and wildlife based on science, rather than consideration of cost. EPA would be misleading the public about the human health and environmental impacts of pollutants. (Sec. 2, Water Quality Standards Attainability”)
• Shield dischargers from liability for known but undisclosed pollutants. This section would make it easier for polluters to discharge emerging pollutants, like PFAS and other forever toxic chemicals, without accountability even if they were aware of the pollutants and chose not to disclose them. (Sec. 8, “Confidence in Clean Water Permits”)
• Allow pesticides to be discharged into a waterway without a Clean Water Act permit if they are authorized for use under another statute that is not designed to protect waterways or wildlife that live in them. This section would make it easier to discharge lethal chemicals into U.S. waterways. (Sec. 11, “Reducing Regulatory Burdens”)
• Allow animal waste to flow directly from feedlots into waterways where it can cause fish kills, drinking water contamination, and harmful algal outbreaks by eliminating the current requirement that the land application of the waste be limited by crop needs (Sec. 10, “Agricultural Stormwater Discharge”)

Americans of Both Parties Support Clean Water, But Not Congress

The health and environmental harms that will result from the PERMIT Act span across state and party lines. According to recent polling, Americans generally agree that water is a top environmental concern, with over 80% of voters saying they were at least somewhat concerned with outdated water infrastructure, agricultural pollution, and forever chemicals and lead in drinking water. Even across party lines, over 80% of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, respectively, support the idea of safe and affordable water as a human right.

Congress originally passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 with broad bipartisan support and a promise “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” Key issues surrounding clean water, such as wetland protection, have received support from both sides of the aisle for decades with both Republican and Democrat presidents supporting protections. Towards the end of the Obama administration and during Trump’s first administration, which waters the Clean Water Act should protect became an increasingly partisan issue, with Republicans generally fighting to slash protections and Democrats generally fighting to preserve them.

“Today we are considering a hyper-partisan piece of legislation that will exacerbate the already disastrous actions that have worked to erode the Clean Water Act set in place following the Sackett v. EPA decision.” –Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) 

Partisan rhetoric and tensions contributed to the PERMIT Act advancing through the House despite the dangers it poses to human and environmental health, and active push-back from Democrat representatives. As polling shows, clean water is a high priority in voters’ minds and the Clean Water Act amendments proposed in the PERMIT Act would directly worsen the issues voters are already concerned about regarding their water. The PERMIT Act poses genuine threats to human health by creating a system that makes it easier for polluters to discharge forever chemicals, pesticides, and toxic pollutants into the waters Americans use for drinking, fishing, and recreation.

What’s Next?

There is interest among some Senators to consider the PERMIT Act or other legislation that would weaken Clean Water Act permitting.  Contact your Senators and let them know that you expect them to vote for clean water and for holding polluters accountable, not for legislation that would undermine one of the strongest, most effective environmental statutes we have in the US.