U.S. Senate leaders said on Wednesday they will revive legislation that would crack down on "patent trolls." The legislation would correct a growing abuse of the legal system with "trolls" buying up patents solely to extort financial settlements from unwitting users.

A bi-partisan group of senators want to move the legislation fairly quickly. The proposal is similar to a House bill that could establish clear pleading standards in court and limit some early discovery, which would limit the cost of litigation. The bill also could include a provision on "fee shifting" that would make the losing party in a lawsuit pay the winner's legal fees.

Congress is taking steps to stop President Barack Obama's flawed plan to extend oppressive federal control over waterways to include even roadside ditches that may funnel water to a stream or ponds during heavy rains.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to oversee any pond or stream that has a "significant nexus" to a navigable waterway, even if the smaller body of water flows just a few weeks a year. It could mean permission would be needed to dig even a small ditch or build a road.

"The EPA continues to plunge ahead despite the outcry from a broad array of constituencies," said Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Agriculture Committee. "It needs to listen to us."

Republicans and Democrats are questioning the EPA's definition of what constitutes a "water of the U.S." Obama has threatened to veto any legislation that blocks the EPA's oversight.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this month approved H.R. 1732 by a vote of  36-22. U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, is a co-sponsor. The bill would force the EPA to withdraw its plan and consult state leaders before issuing a new version.

Opponents of federal overreach say the new rule could require federal approval to do anything like building a new home or installing a culvert, requiring years of expensive negotiations or legal fees to challenge a federal bureaucracy with unlimited legal resources.

The Business Council of Alabama's 2015 Federal Legislative Agenda says the BCA will oppose efforts to expand the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act that would allow federal agencies to regulate ditches, culverts and pipes, desert washes, sheet flow, erosional features, and farmland and treatment ponds as "waters of the United States," subjecting such waters to all of the requirements of the CWA.