'Weak showers are for sad motels!' MAGA lawmaker declares war on weak water pressure

Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) spoke out in Congress on Wednesday to demand change on what he sees as a pressing issue facing Americans: burdensome federal regulations on the water flow of showers.

"Nobody likes weak showerheads. Really, nobody likes weak showerheads," said Fry. "Weak showers are for sad motels and gyms built in the 1970s. If we wanted a gentle mist as our shower, we would just stand in front of a humidifier. That’s why I introduced the SHOWER Act. Because no one wants to be waterboarded by a trickle at 6 a.m. in the morning."

The SHOWER Act, or Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing, would codify a deregulatory executive order put into place by President Donald Trump earlier this year. The bill redefines the term "showerhead" in federal law to essentially get rid of federal limits on shower flow to 2.5 gallons per minute, clarifying that the limit applies individually to each nozzle of a multi-nozzle unit, rather than the total output of the unit.

Federal standards on showerheads date to the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which sought to promote sustainable water and energy use. Before this, showerheads didn't have any industry standards, with flow rates that varied wildly from unit to unit. The Obama administration wrote the first guidance clarifying the limit applied to the whole fixture rather than each nozzle individually; the Trump administration then changed the rule to apply the limit per nozzle in 2020, and the Biden administration undid this.

Trump himself has made the current state of showers in America a constant gripe, often bringing it up unprompted in long, meandering speeches at rallies or other functions.

"I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump said to reporters when he signed his executive order on showers. “I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip – it’s ridiculous.”