Sportsmen blasted a rider that House lawmakers, once again, attached to a major spending bill this week that seeks to block the Obama administration from approving new Clean Water Act policy.

The provision, introduced by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) as an amendment to the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill for 2013, would cut off money for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop or implement new guidance on how to interpret federal jurisdiction over waters under the Clean Water Act. The amendment passed on a vote of 29-20.

The guidance seeks to restore federal protection of streams and wetlands that were called into question by two Supreme Court decisions that attorneys on both sides of the issue agree were muddled and difficult to interpret.

Industry opponents say the guidance misinterprets those decisions to give the federal government unconstitutional regulatory control over waters across the nation.

Trout Unlimited said in a news release yesterday that the provision could harm streams and wetlands across the country, hinder efforts to protect water quality and degrade angling opportunities.

"This rider is an ill-conceived attack on the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency that goes after the helpful efforts of these agencies to clarify Clean Water Act protections for streams and wetlands," said Steve Moyer, vice president for government affairs at Trout Unlimited. "This is the third year in a row the House Appropriations Committee has added harmful provisions to this bill. In the past, these riders have been beaten back. They need to be beaten back again."

Rehberg cheered the amendment's passage in a press release, saying it would block the administration's efforts to accomplish through regulation what it could not through legislation. It was a reference to repeated, failed attempts to strike the word "navigable" from the Clean Water Act, which protects all "navigable waters."

"Now that the House is finally serving its constitutional role as a check and balance as a legislative body, President Obama is using regulations to force his radical agenda on the American people," said Rehberg. "Enough is enough."

Rehberg introduced a similar amendment to a spending bill last year that failed to win final approval.

House Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) is expected to reintroduce a similar amendment in his subcommittee's spending bill that would prevent EPA from spending money for the same purpose.