Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2018, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011. Almost four decades ago, when it enacted the Clean Water Act, Congress established a system of cooperative federalism by making the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, and the States

partners in regulating the Nation's water quality and allocated the primary responsibilities for dealing with day-to-day water pollution control matters to the States.

For most of these almost four decades, this system of cooperative federalism between the EPA and the States has worked quite well. However, in recent years, the EPA has begun to use questionable tactics to usurp the States' role under the Clean Water Act in setting water quality standards and to invalidate legally issued permits by the States. EPA has decided to get involved in the implementation of State standards, second-guessing States with respect to how standards are to be implemented and even second-guessing EPA's own prior determinations that the State standards meet the minimum requirements for the Clean Water Act. EPA has also inserted itself into the States and the Army Corps of Engineers' permit issuance decisions and the second-guessing State and other agencies' permitting decisions.

The EPA's recent actions increasingly are amounting to bullying the States and are unprecedented. H.R. 2018 was introduced to clarify and restore the longstanding balance that had existed between the States and the EPA as coregulators under the Clean Water Act and to preserve the authority of States to make determinations relating to their water quality standards and permitting. The bill was carefully and narrowly crafted to preserve the authority of States to make decisions about their own water quality standards and permits without undue interference on second-guessing from EPA bureaucrats in Washington with little or no knowledge of local water quality conditions.

The legislation reins in EPA from unilaterally issuing a revised or new water quality standard for a pollutant adopted by a State and EPA already has approved a water quality standard for that pollutant. H.R. 2018 restricts EPA from withdrawing its previous approval of a State NPDES water quality permitting program or from limiting Federal financial assistance for a State water quality permitting program on the basis that EPA disagrees with the State.

Further, the bill restricts EPA from objecting to NPDES permits issued by a State. Moreover, the bill clarifies that EPA can veto an Army Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act section 404 permitting decision when the State concurs with the veto.

These limitations apply only in situations where EPA is attempting to contradict and unilaterally force its own one-size-fits-all Federal policies on a State's water quality program. By limiting such overreaching by the EPA, H.R. 2018 in no way affects EPA's proper role in reviewing State permits and standards and coordination pollution control efforts between the States. EPA just has to get back to the more collaborative role it has long played as the overseer of the States' implementation of the Clean Water Act.

Detractors of this legislation claim that the bill only intends to disrupt the complementary roles of EPA and the States under the Clean Water Act and eliminate EPA's ability to protect water quality and public health in downstream States from actions in upstream States. In reality, these detractors want to centralize power in the Federal Government so it can dominate water quality regulation in the States. Implicit in their message is that they do not trust the States in protecting the quality of their waters and the health of their citizens.

This bill returns the balance, certainty, and cooperation between the States and the Federal Government in regards to the environment that our economy, job creators, and permit holders have been begging for. Well over 100 organizations representing a wide variety of public and private entities support this legislation. Just to name a few, these organizations include the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Mining Association, the National Water Resources Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Association of Homebuilders, and the Associated General Contractors of America.

July 12, 2011.

Hon. John Boehner,

Speaker, House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Nancy Pelosi,

Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Urging Swift Passage of the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act

(H.R. 2018)

Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi: The

undersigned 121 organizations, representing a broad cross-

section of the American economy, are united in their strong

support for the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act (H.R.

2018), a bipartisan bill passed by the House Transportation

and Infrastructure Committee on June 22.

The bill would reaffirm the decades-old state-federal

relationship set out in the Clean Water Act (CWA) by

addressing the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)

ongoing regulatory overreach. We urge all House members to

vote for passage of this important legislation when it is

considered on the House floor later this week.

H.R. 2018 has important job creation, economic security,

and federalism implications. Over the years, EPA has

repeatedly challenged states' authority and expertise under

the CWA and asserted its control as the sole arbiter of

evolving CWA permitting requirements and standards. The

agency's actions jeopardize more than $220 billion of annual

economic activity subject to CWA Sec. 402 and 404 permits.

H.R. 2018 would help put people back to work and create new

jobs in the sectors our members serve by restoring the proper

balance between EPA and the states in regulating the nation's

waters, protecting the CWA's system of cooperative

federalism, and preventing EPA from second-guessing or

delaying a state's CWA permitting and water quality

certification decisions.

We urge swift enactment of H.R. 2018 and look forward to

working with you to accomplish that important objective.

Sincerely,

Agricultural Retailers Association; Alabama Cattlemen's

Association; American Concrete Pavement Association;

American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association; American

Farm Bureau Federation; American Rental Association;

American Road & Transportation Builders Association;

American Sugarbeet Growers Association; Arizona Farm

Bureau Federation; Arizona Rock Products Association;

Associated Equipment Distributors; The Associated

General Contractors of America; Association of

Equipment Manufacturers; Buckeye Valley Chamber of

Commerce; Chamber of Commerce of the Mid-Ohio Valley;

Chemical Producers & Distributors Association; Colorado

Cattlemen's Association; Colorado Livestock

Association; CropLife America; Dairy Producers of New

Mexico; Deep South Equipment Dealers Association;

Delaware State Chamber of Commerce; Edison Electric

Institute; Equipment Distributors Association of

Minnesota; Far West Equipment Dealer Association.

Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association; The Fertilizer

Institute; Florida Cattlemen's Association; Florida

Sugar Cane League; Georgia Construction Aggregate

Association; Georgia Mining Association; Greater

Phoenix Chamber of Commerce; Greater Pittsburgh Chamber

of Commerce; Idaho Cattle Association; Illinois

Association of Aggregate Producers; Illinois Chamber of

Commerce; Illinois Coal Association; Industrial

Minerals Association--North America; Iowa Cattlemen's

Association; Iowa Limestone Producers Association;

Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association; Kansas

Aggregate Producers Association; Kansas Livestock

Association; Kansas Ready Mixed Concrete Association;

Kentucky Association of Manufacturers; Kentucky Chamber

of Commerce; Kentucky Coal Association; Kentucky

Crushed Stone Association, Inc.; Lodi Chamber of

Commerce; Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce; Michigan Aggregates

Association; Mid-America Equipment Retailers

Association; Midwest Equipment Dealers Association;

Minnesota-South Dakota Equipment Dealers Association;

Missouri Cattlemen's Association; Montana Equipment

Dealers Association; Montana Stockgrowers Association;

National Asphalt Pavement Association; National

Association of Home Builders; National Association of

Manufacturers.

National Cattlemen's Beef Association; National Corn

Growers Association; National Milk Producers

Federation; National Mining Association; National Pork

Producers Council; National Precast Concrete

Association; National Ready Mixed Concrete Association;

National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association; National

Water Resources Association; Nebraska Cattlemen, Inc.;

North American Equipment Dealers Association; North

Dakota Implement Dealers Association; Northeast

Equipment Dealers Association, Inc.; NUCA Representing

Utility and Excavation Contractors.

Ohio Aggregates & Industrial Minerals Association; Ohio

Chamber of Commerce; Ohio Equipment Distributors

Association; Ohio-Michigan Equipment Dealers

Association; Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association; Pacific

Northwest

Hardware & Implement Association; Palm Desert Area

Chamber of Commerce; Pennsylvania Aggregates and

Concrete Association; Pennsylvania Cattlemen's

Association; Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and

Industry; Portland Cement Association; Public Lands

Council; Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment;

Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce; Simi Valley

Chamber of Commerce; South Dakota Agri-Business

Association; South Dakota Cattlemen's Association;

South East Dairy Farmers Association; SouthEastern

Equipment Dealers Association; South Western

Association; Tennessee Concrete Association; Tennessee

Road Builders Association; Texas and Southwestern

Cattle Raisers Association.

Texas Cattle Feeders Association; Tucson Metropolitan

Chamber of Commerce; U.S. Cattlemen's Association; U.S.

Chamber of Commerce; United Egg Producers; USA Rice

Federation; Utah Cattlemen's Association; Utah Farm

Bureau Federation; The Utah School and Institutional

Trust Lands Administration; Utah Wool Growers

Association; Virginia Agribusiness Council; Virginia

Grain Producers Association; Virginia Poultry

Federation; Washington Aggregates & Concrete

Association; Washington Cattlemen's Association;

Washington Farm Bureau; West Virginia Chamber of

Commerce; West Virginia Coal Association; West Virginia

Manufacturers Association; Western Business Roundtable;

Wyoming Ag Business Association; Wyoming Crop

Improvement Association; Wyoming Stock Growers.

I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica).

I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster).

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Guinta).

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble).

Mr. Chairman, I think what this bill is addressing, we have 21st century problems and challenges, and we are looking for 21st century solutions. I want to lay out the facts to have a little more clarity, and I appreciate my colleague from West Virginia's support of the bill.

We have to realize that the State EPAs have to have an approved plan by the Federal EPA. That is the framework that they are working under, and you just can't have the Federal EPA come in during the ball game and try to change the rules and undermine the efforts of the State EPAs.

I want to comment regarding the gentleman from Oregon's comments that we are going to go backwards and we have made progress in the last 40 years, and the States didn't do anything in the last 40 years or before. Let's remember what happened prior to 1972.

I grew up 12 miles from the city of Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River. I remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. I remember as a child when I couldn't go down and swim in Lake Erie any more because raw sewage was going into Lake Erie. Those events caused this Congress to pass the Clean Water Act and establish the U.S. EPA and also give authority for the States to set up their programs. Prior to that, nobody was concerned about the environment and we didn't have the so- called environmental movement where we are all concerned about having clean water.

Since then, we have made tremendous progress. On point-source pollution, we have made tremendous progress. On discharges, we don't have the discharges going into our lakes and rivers and streams like we did 40 years ago. We have made significant progress addressing nonsource-point pollution. Now, that is not to say that we don't have more challenges.

I want to talk about one size fits all, and the U.S. EPA has an agenda right now that is overreaching. They want to set policies and parameters that fit for everybody to work under. I will give you an example. The numerical nutrient standard, and let's take phosphorus and nitrogen. You hear a lot about phosphorus sediment pollution in our lakes and rivers. To go in there and set a number, a numerical number that they can't exceed that, discharge at that level, causes some problems.

For the last 40 years, we have been operating under something called the narrative standard. States can go in there and look at what is going on in that watershed or that stream or that river. I can tell you, in every river and stream in this country, there are different things happening. The biology is different. The pH is different. The water temperature, water flow is different. The sunlight. A whole host of things. They can incorporate that and come up with a plan on how to address that in their local locale.

When you set a number at such a high level, it creates a situation where the States can't attain it; it's not possible. We have seen that happen in Florida, and that is why Florida has litigation pending because they set one size fits all. Whereas Florida, ironically, was moving to a point to set a numerical standard, but they wanted to address and incorporate what I call the narrative standard so they could address what is happening in each locale and not a huge region to address those differences that are happening in that stream or that river. So one size fits all doesn't work. It causes problems, and it will make us to go back, impacting the progress we've made in the last 40 years.

Now, in this bill we also talk about the permitting issue. One of the most egregious things that I have seen since I have been in Congress since January was a revocation of a permit. Yes, it was in West Virginia. It was a coal mine operation that went through 10 years of an environmental impact study, got their permit in 2007, and then 3 years later the permit was revoked, not because they were in permit violation. The Army Corps of Engineers testified in my committee that there were no problems. The State, West Virginia EPA didn't support revoking that permit. I really don't know why they revoked that permit other than it was maybe on an agenda of somebody. But they were not in violation of the permit.

It is one thing to revoke a permit when you are in violation of a permit, but when you are not in violation of the permit, to take that permit away, it sets a very dangerous precedent; because the dangerous precedent it sets across our entire economy, if you're an entity or an enterprise and you have to have a permit from the Federal Government to be in business, and if that Federal Government at the whim of some bureaucrat or the administration comes and pulls that permit any time they want to, who is going to risk capital and make that investment, create jobs, knowing that they could be shut down tomorrow because the permit is not there to stay in business?

That is what this bill addresses. They have to get concurrence. The U.S. EPA would have to get concurrence from the State EPA to support that revocation to shut that business down.

So this is really a jobs bill. We are trying to relieve uncertainty so people know what the playing field is. I can tell you, I think the State EPAs can do a better job in their locales, because they know what is going on there, than to have a one-size-fits-all policy by the Federal Government and an overreaching and burdensome regulatory climate that kills jobs, kills economic investment, and, like I said, kills jobs.

So that is why I think it is important to move this bill forward. This is a jobs bill.

We have sent several bills over to the Senate that are jobs bills. I urge the Senate to take them up because we have unemployment at 9.2 percent and rising.

I think it is important for people to have an opportunity to have a job and economic opportunities. We need the Federal Government to create the environment for what I call the job creators to have that confidence, to make those investments and start hiring people back and growing their businesses.

This bill is really important to encourage cooperative arrangements working among the Federal EPA and the State EPAs.

I was really floored in the committee hearings we had where we had State EPAs come in--and some of them were from the other side of the aisle from me--and testify against the Federal EPA on their actions and their overreach.

You know, a strong economy--some people don't understand this, although I say this a lot. A strong and growing economy will provide the resources to invest and protect and enhance the environment. An economy that is struggling right now, it makes it tougher to have those resources. As an example, you look at some Third World countries where their biggest challenge is feeding their people, they don't have the resources to build sewage treatment plants and water filtration systems and do other things to protect the environment. We have the resources, and we have a strong, growing economy, and we should be working with those businesses because most businesses and most people want to do the right thing. Everybody wants clean water and clean air.

So I take exception to the comments of my colleague from Oregon who said that we are not protecting the environment. I think a strong, growing economy does protect the environment, and I think the regulatory policies are in place at the State levels because the States are set up to do it now, different than 40 years ago, to regulate and also enforce environmental protection laws, whether it is mountaintop mining or whatever it is. We have the rules in place.

In Ohio, when I was in the State Senate 2 years ago, we passed comprehensive legislation to add additional regulation on the oil and gas industry to protect our groundwater, our water aquifers, and our surface water. And we did.

I am really encouraged now, the potential we have with the Utica shale and the Marcellus shale to make us closer to being energy independent and not dependent and shipping almost a trillion dollars a year away to other countries, some of which don't really like us very much. We have an opportunity to have a strong, growing economy and provide the energy, but also protect the environment at the same time. We just have the regulatory process in place, and I think this enables a stronger regulatory process because it emboldens the State EPAs to do their job and work cooperatively with their partners in Washington,

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to claim time in opposition.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The intent of H.R. 2018 is to restore the balance between the States and the Federal Government in carrying out the Clean Water Act.

This amendment simply strikes the entire bill, as she stated, and ensures that the EPA can continue to unilaterally force its own one- size-fits-all Federal policies onto the States' water quality programs, which, by the way, they previously already approved.

Under this amendment EPA will continue to pass unfunded mandates on to the States. It ensures that EPA issues interim guidance that frustrates States and permit applicants, and ensures that the EPA will continue their legally dubious activities of revoking already legally issued permits, as I stated earlier.

I urge all Members to oppose this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

I wish to claim the time in opposition.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

By striking section 2 of the bill, this amendment would effectively gut much of the bill.

Section 2 of the bill would limit EPA from unilaterally changing approved State water quality standards and permitting decisions, or from withdrawing approval of a State water quality permitting program or limiting Federal financial assistance for the State water quality permitting program on the basis that the EPA disagrees with the State regarding a State water quality standard that EPA has approved.

By striking section 2 of the bill, this amendment would continue to allow this administration's EPA to impose one-size-fits-all Federal policies on the States' water quality programs.

We are not in favor of the EPA continuing their regulatory onslaught on the States. I urge all Members to oppose this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I just want to reemphasize and restate that the States are operating under an already approved plan from the U.S. EPA which addresses these concerns, so I don't see how we go backwards, because they're operating within the framework that was set up. By the way, under the Clean Water Act, that plan is reviewed every 3 years.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I urge Members to support Mrs. Capito's amendment. Her amendment would bring transparency to the development of regulations and require the EPA to provide a more robust analysis of the economic impacts of its regulatory actions.

This will not halt the issuance of regulations, only provide better information to those who are responsible for writing the regulations, in this case the EPA. I think we can all agree the EPA could have better information to utilize to make better regulatory decisions.

I am concerned, as I believe the Administrator of the U.S. EPA has testified, that their main concern, when they look at a regulatory issue, is public health and safety of the environment, and they don't do any cost-benefit analysis and diminishing returns and all that.

I urge support of the amendment.

The Hanabusa amendment authorizes the EPA to study the effectiveness of cooperative federalism once H.R. 2018 is enacted.

While the amendment seems to carry a bias in that the EPA can only report an increase of pathogens or toxins, and not reductions, after enactment of H.R. 2018, the EPA will have very little to report upon.

H.R. 2018 will lead to better water quality decisions made at the local level, and this will benefit the environment for all of us. If H.R. 2018 would lead to water quality degradation, none of us in this Chamber would support it if that were the case.

Noting the bias in the amendment, if the sponsor would like to ask for a unanimous consent request to modify her amendment to modify line 5 after ``increase'' by adding the phrase ``or reductions,'' we then would be able to accept the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

With the modification, I think this is a good amendment. I want to commend my colleague for offering it because I think we will get an accurate report from the EPA when they do their study on whether we're making progress because of H.R. 2018 or if we're going backwards. So I think it's important to have this amendment modified to provide those words ``or reductions.''

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Modification to Amendment No. 4

The gentleman from Colorado seems to suggest that States would continue to allow polluters to pollute waters of their States under H.R. 2018 unless this amendment is adopted. Nothing could be further from the truth. If H.R. 2018 degraded water quality, none of us would support this legislation.

I also question the implementation of the amendment. If you had a permit holder who is in significant noncompliance, does that negate water quality provisions for the water body the permit holder may be polluting? Of course not. Nothing in H.R. 2018 allows a permit holder to violate the terms of a permit.

I urge all Members to oppose the Polis amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I just want to reemphasize that if there is a permit holder in violation, the States have an obligation and a responsibility to step in and take action and enforcement. If they probably didn't, I'm sure that there's some organization that would file a lawsuit against that EPA.

So I don't think this amendment does anything to help the bill. I think the bill takes care of it, and the people who would be in violation would be prosecuted under the law.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I ask for a recorded vote.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to claim time in opposition to the amendment.

The Connolly amendment says that the underlying bill will not apply to any waters for which Federal funding is provided. This would have an effect of realigning Federal funding for projects and subject States with waters for which Federal funding is provided to greater EPA imposition of Federal one-size-fits-all policies.

As drafted, the scope of the Federal funding intended to be covered under this amendment is unclear, but could be interpreted to be almost limitless in coverage. As a result, this amendment would allow EPA to determine that the amendment applies to virtually all waters, with the consequent effect of nullifying the underlying bill.

Rather than nullifying this legislation, I would rather the gentleman from Virginia join those of us who think it would be more productive to ease the burden of unnecessary regulations and provide the States more authority in carrying out the Clean Water Act. I urge all Members to oppose the Connolly amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to claim time in opposition, although I am not opposed.

EPA's role in regulating pipelines is minimal as compared to the role of other agencies. This bill would have little effect on regulating pipelines. Therefore, we can accept this amendment.

I wish to claim time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I must strongly oppose this amendment because it basically aims to gut the underlying bill.

This amendment is designed to ensure that the EPA can continue to unilaterally force its own one-size-fits-all

Federal policies onto the States' water quality programs.

The underlying bill, H.R. 2018, reestablishes the States' balanced role in carrying out the provisions of the Clean Water Act; but this amendment, in effect, says that the underlying bill will not apply virtually anywhere the Clean Water Act applies.

Implicitly, this amendment also says that the States cannot be trusted in protecting the quality of their waters and the health of their citizens, and the Federal Government knows best.

Once States have approved clean water programs, they are capable of administering their programs and caring for the welfare of their citizens. EPA needs to be more respectful of the decisions made by the States in those circumstances.

H.R. 2018 is a good bill that restores balance to an out-of-control U.S. EPA. The intent of this amendment is to make the bill completely unworkable. I would also add that I think that the Clean Water Act has worked until now when the States have been usurped of their authority and ability to enforce the State and Federal EPA environmental laws.

I urge all Members to oppose this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to comment on the comments from my colleague from Oregon talking about a new pollutant. Well, under H.R. 2018, if there's a new pollutant out there and it comes in and it is not in an already State-approved plan, the State has to take action, and the EPA and the State have to work cooperatively to develop a new plan to address that issue. So I think if the issue of arsenic came up, they would have to work that out cooperatively.

And the comment about States won't take action, I can't believe that a State EPA is not going to take action. Oregon--maybe they're not going to take action in Oregon. It's hard for me to believe that. But I don't think this amendment is necessary, and I oppose the amendment.

Under the gentleman from Missouri's amendment, if a State has made a disaster declaration any time in the last 5 years, H.R. 2018 would not be applicable to waters in the area. This amendment would continue to allow the EPA to overturn State-established and U.S. EPA- approved water quality standards and unilaterally impose federally dictated permitting and other regulatory requirements on States and other disaster responders. This, in turn, would impact on the ability of States and other disaster responders to respond to and conduct cleanups after major flood disasters and would discourage States from seeking disaster assistance.

I urge all Members to oppose the Carnahan amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Let me thank the chairman very much.

I definitely support cooperation between the Federal Government and the State government. That is absolutely the best partnership and one that I encourage.

Having been a member of the local city council of my own city of Houston, I also know that unfunded mandates are very much difficult to overcome. But I argue vigorously against the underlying legislation because it does equate to undermining the health of Americans. We need clean water, not dirty water.

So this amendment strikes the entire legislation that causes us to ignore a partnership that has been established between the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, which is a State system. And to my count, some 47 States have initially gotten into the system and have worked to ensure that they have clean water.

Why do I suggest that this is a very challenging approach to take that the underlying legislation has? Because it prevents the EPA from taking actions to revise outdated State water quality standards. It makes a State the final arbiter of whether an NPDES permit, a license for better water quality, is in fact to be implemented so that one State may do something that impacts negatively on another State.

These are the people we're concerned about: a working nurse and a healthy baby, or we are concerned about a gentleman by the name of Mr. Caldario, who is a resident of Crestwood, who indicated some years ago that he was worried about the water he drank for years without knowing what it was contaminated with--``Cancer Study Triggers Fears in Crestwood,'' which I will submit for the Record. His final sentence states, ``I can't help but wonder if what happened to me had something to do with the water.''

My amendment is straightforward. It strikes the language of this bill. It says let's go back to the drawing table. I want to be able to help Members, but if you have 47 States that have been engaged in this process, let's find a way that we can come together and have clean water and not dirty water.

This is a straightforward amendment that says that this is overreaching. The EPA would be prohibited from resolving conflicting State decisions on protecting water quality. Join me in supporting the Jackson Lee amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I thank the good intentions of the gentleman,

but I am concerned by the interpretation.

Let me just share with you very briefly my own State. In my own State, I'm aware of how tributaries can impact the body of water they flow into. Currently there is a dead zone, an area of low oxygen where marine life cannot survive, in the Gulf of Mexico. This dead zone, estimated to reach 9,421 square miles, is due to increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that washed into the gulf from the Mississippi River and other tributaries. This legislation prevents the EPA from regulating criteria for pollutants that cause dead zones.

We are the protectors of America's assets, its waterways, its drinking water, the ability to have the opportunity for clean water for our fish and fishing. I ask you, let's go back to the drawing board. If we have States that are already participating, let's demand, in an administrative process, for EPA to restrain itself, but let's not take away the underlying power that is going to allow us to have clean drinking water and for someone who lives in Crestwood to be able to be possibly cancer free.

I ask my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to H.R. 2018 ``The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011.'' My amendment restores the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with state governments to establish standards ensuring all Americans have access to clean and safe water.

My amendment strikes the entire bill. The Clean Water Act (CWA) was designed to encourage collaboration between state agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to develop acceptable standards for maintaining the safety of our nation's bodies of water. The EPA was created in 1970 to ensure that our air, land, and water receive adequate protection from pollution and we must allow them to do so for the benefit of all Americans.

The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act is absolutely not the way to protect our nation's water bodies. The EPA has the expertise and resources for research, standard-setting, monitoring and enforcement with regard to five environmental hazards: air and water pollution, solid waste disposal, radiation, and pesticides. EPA represents a coordinated approach to each of these problems.

Seeking to limit the extent to which the EPA can oversee the safety of our water supply threatens the health of American citizens across the country. The EPA has not only the right, but the responsibility to update state water pollution regulations and permit procedures if they discover new threats to health or the environment.

The EPA must remain involved in regulating water pollution to ensure a cohesive policy that protects all states from pollution. Should the authority to regulate water pollution levels be given solely to the states, there would be no way to regulate waterways that pass through multiple states.

As a Representative from Texas, a Gulf Coast state, I am aware of how tributaries can impact the body of water they flow into. Currently, there is a dead zone, an area of low oxygen where marine life cannot survive, in the Gulf of Mexico. This dead zone, estimated to reach 9,421 square miles, is due to increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that washed into the gulf from the Mississippi River and other tributaries. This legislation prevents the EPA from regulating criteria for pollutants that cause dead zones.

My Republican colleagues feel we must pass this bill urgently. They will tell their constituents, and all of the American people that the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act is necessary to issue permits and avoid backlog in mining facilities, factories, agriculture, and other businesses. What my friends on the other side of the aisle will not tell you is that this legislation is helping business at the risk of our nation's health.

Those who support this bill will not mention that EPA regulation prevents toxic chemicals and biological agents from entering our surface water bodies and groundwater. Apparently, those championing this legislation do not feel the American people deserve to know the serious health risks that can result from drinking or bathing in polluted water. Breathing the vapors of a polluted water source, consuming meat or vegetables affected by polluted water, and consuming fish that have been exposed to polluted water are all potentially harmful.

Mr. Chair, I offer this amendment to strike the entire Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act to protect not only my constituents in the 18th district of Texas, but Americans across the nation from the diseases that result from water pollution. Diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis, encephalitis, and others caused by pathogens in water.

Surely the EPA, the states, and the industries involved can work together to prevent pollution levels in surface and groundwater from causing cancer, or serious damage to the liver, kidneys, nervous system, reproductive system, or endocrine system. Surely, we are not willing to sacrifice the health of this nation to pass a bill to benefit industry.

A study conducted by Cornell University concluded that water pollution accounts for 80% of infectious diseases, and 5 million deaths per year. I urge my colleagues on either side of the aisle to consider the enormous gamble this Congress is taking by reducing regulations to keep our water safe.

Supporting my amendment will strike the dangerous Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act, and provide an opportunity for new legislation that fosters compromise between the EPA, the states, and stakeholders, without compromising water quality and endangering the health of American citizens.

[From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)

I thank the distinguished chairman, and again I thank my friends on the floor of the House, and I did not acknowledge my friend the ranking member.

I offer myself as a person who seeks to collaborate and fix problems. So my second amendment says let's work together, but there are times when the heart of the matter has to be addressed.

My amendment strikes the language that really is the heart of the matter. It strikes the language in the bill, ensuring that the vital role played by the EPA in determining whether or not certain pollutants enter our waterways can still exist. Providing States with nearly unlimited authority to determine which pollutants can enter our waterways does not take into account issues that arise when States disagree.

My amendment strikes the language that allows States, 50 States, to conflict against each other and one-upmanship--I'm going to do this; no, you're going to do this. This standardizes the issue of clean water. This stands up for people like those in Crestwood, Illinois, that wonder whether the water caused cancer, kidney cancer, in a 30- year-old.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop).

I thank the gentleman.

Is it my right to close, Mr. Chairman?

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Let me refer my colleagues again to basic facts.

Forty-seven States have entered into agreements with the EPA because they have decided, in spite of the challenges that we all have on making sure that we do the right thing, that it is the right thing to do, that clean water is our priority. And I would offer as a viable picture a recollection of Americans who had to live through histories when water was not clean. We did have that era in our lifetime, or at least in the lifetimes of many. I would argue that that is not the life we would like to go back to.

This particular section is protecting us against pollutants that degrade surface water, rendering it unsafe for drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities coming from a vast variety of chemicals, industry, and other sources. By regulating the sources that dispense these harmful pollutants, the EPA is able to ensure that all States have access to safe drinking water.

Do you want a jobs bill? Then you create the companies that are going to help us keep our waterways clean. Put people to work cleaning water. Put people to work complying with the right thing to do to ensure that we have clean drinking water, to ensure that babies and working moms and families can turn on that faucet, and to ensure that they can drink that clean water.

We want to work with industry. We want to be able to come halfway, but we don't want to return America to a time when you would dip down. You find in developing nations the enormous number of diseases that children have because they do not have clean water. Go to some of our developing nations. See what they're washing themselves in. See what they're drinking.

That's not America.

We have the opportunity to be the kind of nation that works with our businesses but also the kind that fights for our children and provides the opportunity for clean water. I ask my

colleagues to stand with us and to strike section 2 to allow us, one, to go for a compromise if we can, but also to stand for those who would welcome clean water. Let's end diseases that can be caused in this reckless manner.

I ask my colleagues to support the Jackson Lee amendment to support clean water in America.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to H.R. 2018 the ``Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011,'' which ensures the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will continue to have authority to oversee issues related to the standards for and issuance of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits.

My amendment will strike section 2 of the bill, ensuring the vital role played by the EPA in determining whether or not certain pollutants enter our waterways. Providing States with nearly unlimited authority to determine which pollutants can enter our waterways does not take into account issues that arise when States disagree.

The EPA is a unifying body, issuing regulations that ensure all States have standards that they must follow. Bodies of water cross State lines, and the water quality standards of one State are very likely to impact neighboring States.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that all wastewater discharges to surface water receive a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. 47 States, including Texas, where I represent the 18th Congressional District, are currently authorized to issue NPDES permits. Texas has been authorized to issue these permits since September 14, 1998.

The pollutants that degrade surface water, rendering it unsafe for drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities, come from a vast variety of chemicals, industry and other sources. By regulating the sources that dispense these harmful pollutants, the EPA is able to ensure that all States have access to safe water bodies.

It is important that the EPA be able to set a universal standard that all States follow. States may lack the resources and funding to adequately implement the NPDES program and properly regulate sources of water contaminants. Additionally, States may not have the resources or expertise needed to continually evaluate regulations in order to ensure that water remains safe.

Preventing the EPA from regulating the levels of pollutants in bodies of water may give jurisdiction over the issuance of permits to the States, but it certainly will not allow States to set their own standards for water quality. If the EPA is not able to set universal standards, downstream States will be subject to the water quality of upstream States. Contaminated groundwater will spread beyond State borders, impacting the lakes, reservoirs, and agriculture of nearby States, putting the people and the economy of its neighbors at risk.

In 1906, Missouri sued Illinois for discharging sewage into a tributary of the Mississippi River that ultimately rendered drinking water unsafe in Missouri. Restricting the EPA from holding all States to the same standards will inevitably lead to many suits of this nature.

I believe this bill sends us in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting our nation's bodies of water. This bill leaves a false impression that the EPA is an organization that arbitrarily picks and chooses what chemicals States can and cannot permit to enter our precious waters. Rather, the EPA has a broad responsibility for research, standard-setting, monitoring, and enforcement with regard to five environmental hazards: air pollution, water pollution, solid waste disposal, radiation, and pesticides. The EPA represents a coordinated approach to each of these problems, including an important standard for clean water.

Mr. Chair, I strongly urge opposition to this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the majority leader for the purposes of inquiring of the schedule for the week to come.

I thank the gentleman for his scheduling information.

I want to pursue what I presume is the reason for not having the district work period that was originally scheduled. My presumption is that we are concerned about the impending arrival of the August 2 date on which America would be put in the position of defaulting on its obligations. I presume that's the reason, that we want to make sure that we are here to work on that issue. Am I correct on that?

I thank the gentleman for that observation.

I know the gentleman has said in the past that he believes it would be a very bad situation for our economy and for our country if we did not extend the debt limit.

Am I correct that the gentleman still shares that view?

I am pleased, as the gentleman knows, to hear that you want to stop the spiraling deficits that confront our country. I will repeat again because the gentleman keeps mentioning this, and I have enough experience to know what has happened:

In the 30 years that I've been here, of course we've had some few years of the Obama administration, but we had Mr. Reagan's administration, Mr. Bush I's administration, Mr. Bush II's administration, and we ran up--and I know the gentleman knows these figures--over $6 trillion of deficit during that period of time. However, in the 8 years that Mr. Clinton was President of the United States, we had a $62.9 billion surplus.

Now, the gentleman makes the point that spending is out of control. The fact is, as the gentleman clearly knows, when you were in charge of the House and the Presidency and the Senate, you increased spending by more than was increased during the Clinton administration by a percentage on an annual basis. So I'm glad to hear that your side now, without fail, talks about spending being out of control. Very frankly, I have the feeling, if your side were spending 5 cents, you would think that we would need to cut an additional 5 cents in revenues so that we could not pay the bills, because that's why we ran up $6 trillion in deficits: you did not pay for what you bought.

Now, I'm one of those who very strongly believes we ought to pay for what we buy, but I also believe that we ought not to put this country on the brink of financial chaos and bring us down in the eyes of the world because we don't extend our debt.

Very frankly, I think we ought to pay for what we buy. We call that ``taxes''--whether it's defending America, paying our FBI, paying people who are researching cancer, heart, lung, diabetes issues. Those are Federal expenditures for which the American people pay through taxes. If we are going to be responsible, we make a very simple judgment: if we want to buy it, we ought to pay for it.

That $6 trillion of deficit was incurred during those Presidencies, and the President is the only person in America who can stop spending-- the only one. You can't do it and I can't do

it. We need 217 other votes in our House. Over there, they need at least 60 votes to do anything. The President can do it himself. Ronald Reagan never had a veto overridden of a bill that said we spent too much money. George Bush I never had a veto overridden in which he vetoed a bill saying we spent too much money, and George Bush II never once had a veto overridden so that we spent money that he did not sanction.

So I say to my friend, we did meet at the White House, and the President of the United States, the leader of our party, and I and Mr. Reid and Mr. Durbin all said, yes, we need to get a handle on this spending; yes, we need to get a handle on the deficit; and, yes, we need to bring down the debt. We need to come to the table together with everything on the table, and we need to pay for what we think we ought to buy. Frankly, we ought to ensure that the United States of America, for the first time in history, doesn't fail to pay its bills.

I tell my friend that we've had a lot of commentary over the last few days, people on Wall Street, people in business--large, medium and small--and I will tell you that if the United States doesn't, by August 2, agree to pay that which it owes, that which it has incurred--not what we're going to incur, but those debts that we've incurred in the past--everybody in America is going to be hurt.

Every economist that I talk to says that interest rates are going to spike, the stock market is going to be at risk and, very frankly, millions of people who have pension funds and who have interest in their pensions are going to be adversely affected, the housing market, which is struggling, is going to be hurt, the economy that is struggling is going to be hurt. So I would hope that my friend and I will go to the White House on Sunday, we will sit with the President of the United States, and we will be for a large deal that is euphemistically referred to as a ``comprehensive solution'' so that we can in fact--not in the short term, not temporarily, but in the long term--bring fiscal discipline to the operations of our country. Our country needs that. I think the international community expects that of us. And if we don't do that, I tell my friend, I think we will not have fulfilled our oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and serve the general welfare of our country and our people.

Now, some in your party of course have suggested there is no need to raise the debt. Does the gentleman agree with that proposition? I'm not going to go through the quotes, but as you know, one of your candidates for President has indicated there is no need to worry about raising the debt. She serves in this body, as a matter of fact.

I thank the gentleman.

Reclaiming my time, very interesting comments he makes. Of course, he leaves out some things. He talks about the jobs that were lost. Those jobs were lost of course as this administration took office. This administration has gained back 2 million of the 8 million jobs that were lost during the economic program that my friend from Virginia voted for, for the most part. Eight million jobs were lost. And the month that this administration took office in January, 780,000 jobs in one month were lost, the last month of the Bush administration. That's not very distant past.

But let me tell you, I heard the same rhetoric--you said you've changed, I heard the same rhetoric in 1993, same rhetoric when we adopted a program that we said would balance the budget, bring the economy back and create jobs. The same rhetoric, oh, no, you won't do it. The program that you're going to adopt--none of which you voted for, you weren't here, I understand that--but the same rhetoric applied. You thought we were going to tank the economy, kill jobs, explode the deficit and have high unemployment. In fact, as my friend well knows--he didn't read those statistics because he thinks they're ancient history because you opposed that policy. But that policy created 22 million jobs. That's a 30 million job difference between the Bush administration that was the follow-on administration and the Clinton administration. Thirty million job difference, I tell my friend, under the policies that you adopted and you supported in the 2000s.

So I would hope that my friend's comments are correct, that you have decided to change. In point of fact, we need change. And in point of fact, the American public--which is divided itself, but would like us to come together, and I'm hopeful that we'll do that. And my friend and I have had the opportunity to talk about this. We do have significant differences. But none of us can put something on the table and say if you don't agree, I'm going to tank the economy, I'm going to have America default for the first time in its 200-plus years of history if you don't agree and do it my way.

I have said, the leader has said on this side, everything is on the table.

We understand that you have to pay for what you buy, and we also understand we have to buy less, and we are prepared to do both.

In fact, we have agreed to do both in the Biden talks.

Now, my friend talks about economists. The most successful investor in America, I think most people will agree, is Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett said we raised the debt ceiling seven times during the Bush administration. And now in this Congress, under the Republicans, they're using it as a hostage, and you really don't have any business playing Russian roulette to get your way in some matter. We should, he said, be more grown up on that. To that extent, he echoed the comments of our Speaker, who is trying, in my opinion, to get to a place where we can come together, compromise--as is critical in a democracy--pay our bills, and reduce our obligations and reduce spending. Buffett went on to say we should, as I said, be more grown up on that.

If we don't meet the August 2 deadline, he observed, you're playing with fire when you don't need to play with fire. And we don't need to tell the rest of the world that any time people in Congress start throwing a tantrum, that we're not going to pay our bills. That is not responsible behavior. It's not adult behavior. It's not good for anybody in the United States of America, and it's not good for the international community.

In fact, Senator Alan Simpson was referring to Tom Coburn, who has said, look, you've got to have everything on the table, including, yes, revenues; yes, taxes.

Some bard has said that taxes are the price we pay for democracy. They should not be any higher than they need to be, but we ought to pay for what we buy. And if we don't, if people don't want to pay for it, we ought not to buy it.

Unfortunately, the reason we racked up $6 trillion of deficits during the Reagan and both Bush administrations is because we bought things and didn't pay for them. As you heard me say at the White House, we, both parties--you weren't here--voted for some things and didn't pay for them. We've got to stop that. That's why we put in place statutory

Reclaiming my time, if I can----

I will continue to yield to the gentleman.

I thank the gentleman for his comment.

The gentleman, I understand, does not like me to look back. But the problem with being around for some time, you hear people say that this isn't going to work or that's going to work, and you know what? Hopefully that ought to be instructive as to whether it did work or didn't work.

And the problem I have, which, apparently, I know you don't appreciate, is that I've heard the rhetoric before that you've just used today, and I heard it in 1993 when a program which had revenues in it, or, as you like to say, taxes--obviously those are revenues--and it was going to destroy the economy. Who said so? Phil Gramm, an economist on your side. He said we would devastate the economy. He was dead, flat wrong, 180 degrees wrong. We had the best economy in your lifetime.

Furthermore, let me instruct the gentleman, I don't know what you're reading from, but your figures are wrong. Over the last 20 months we have gained 2 million jobs.

Now, did we lose a lot of jobs in the first 6 months? We did. Now, there is no

doubt in my mind for 1 second that if it were a Republican President and it had been a Democratic administration, there is no administration in history that wouldn't have blamed those first 6 months on their predecessor because they couldn't turn the economy around. So, since the stimulus took effect, we have gained 2 million jobs. Have we gained enough? No. We lost 8 million jobs under the Bush administration. So we have only filled 25 percent of the hole. Again, I don't know what paper you are looking at, but you check the figures.

Now, unfortunately this month, he is absolutely correct. It was disappointing, and the month before was disappointing. In fact, of course, some people are doing pretty well in America. The stock market closed at about 12,700-plus on the Dow yesterday, some $2 trillion on hand.

One of the things I think that people are worried about is making sure that we act as adults, we act responsibly, we pay our bills, and we ensure that America does not default. All I am going to say, and then I will close, is that I hope the gentleman and I can join together on Sunday and on every day thereafter between now and when we can resolve this issue so that we can pay our bills, stabilize our economy, and give what the gentleman talked a lot about in our colloquies when our positions were reversed--I remember those days--talked a lot about, and that was confidence, that was stability.

The failure for us to act, as we acted seven times in the Bush administration to raise the debt limit, and I don't have the specific number, but more than that in the Reagan administration--and by the way, during the last 4 years of the Clinton administration, does the gentleman remember how many times we raised the debt limit? Zero. Zero. Why? Because for every one of those 4 years we had a surplus, not a deficit. A surplus. And Mr. Greenspan was worried at the end of the Clinton administration that we were going to pay off the debt too quickly. And President Bush projected a $5.6 trillion surplus.

So I tell my friend that the reason I look back is to not repeat the mistakes of the past. We didn't pay our bills. We paid our bills in the nineties. We started not paying our bills again. You jettisoned the statutory PAYGO. You jettisoned it again, essentially, not the statutory part, but the rule part.

Again, I don't enjoy going back and forth on this, but I am very concerned for my country. The Speaker said he wanted to solve this problem by June 30. It is now July 7. We haven't resolved it. And the country is waiting for us. So let us hope that all of us will not say, can't do this, can't do that, can't do the other.

Let us go down to the White House on Sunday with the President, with the Senate, with the leaders of this House, and say, yes, we can. We can be responsible. We can be adults. We are going to get this done for the people.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I

call up House Resolution 347 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purposes of debate only.

General Leave

I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days during which they may revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution provides for a structured rule and makes in order 10 specific amendments that were received by the Rules Committee. Nine of those were offered by Democrats; only one amendment made in order was offered by a Republican. So the vast majority of amendments that were received by the Rules Committee which are in compliance with House rules were made in order under this resolution, with most being from Democrats.

So this is a very fair rule and continues the record of the Rules Committee in this Congress of making as many amendments in order as possible which conform to House rules. I commend Chairman Dreier for continuing the record of fairness and openness in the formulation of this particular rule.

Likewise, I would also like to commend the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Mica, for bringing this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, I am a cosponsor of this legislation which seeks to restore just a little bit of balance between States and the Federal Government when it comes to implementation of Clean Water Act mandates. The Clean Water Act was originally intended by Congress to restore and maintain the integrity of our Nation's waters, which is a noble goal. Who can be opposed to that? We all support the idea of clean water in our Nation and our communities. But the Clean Water Act was originally intended to be a partnership between the States and the Federal Government and allowed the States to be authorized as the lead authority for water quality programs and permits.

Unfortunately, the bill was written in a very careless and sloppy way, and so the time has come when it can be re-altered or reinterpreted as time goes on. It doesn't matter that the Constitution does not allow that. The Constitution clearly says that all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in the Congress. What we have seen is an agency of the Federal Government start to expand beyond their responsibility because the legislation itself, the core legislation, is somewhat vague.

John Marshall once said that agencies should have the power to fill in the details. We're not talking about details. We're talking about where agencies of the Federal Government have expanded their power and responsibility far beyond what was ever intended, specifically when it relates to the value and the priority of States.

For example, the State of Florida had previously obtained EPA approval for its statewide water quality and nutrient criteria development plan, and even though the State of Florida is well under way in developing its own nutrient standards based on those earlier Federal approvals, the EPA, in 2010, decided to step in and, with what Nelson Rockefeller used to say as the deadening hand of bureaucracy, imposed its own new water quality standards for nutrients in the State of Florida; violating the implicit State and Federal partnership established under the original Clean Water Act and stomping all over the good work that Florida had been doing when it was completing its tasks based on those earlier Federal approvals.

In other States, the same thing has happened. In West Virginia, the EPA retroactively vetoed permits previously issued for coal mining operations by the Army Corps of Engineers.

These examples of overreaching by an administration, specifically the EPA, have upset the longstanding balance between Federal and State partners in regulating our Nation's waters and has undermined the system of cooperative federalism that was supposed to have been established in the original Clean Water Act. The EPA's actions have pulled the rug out from under the States in a very capricious and an extremely arrogant manner, have created an atmosphere of regulatory uncertainty for businesses and local governments, which now have to plan and rely on clean water permits as they think they might be used in the future.

This new uncertainty has an extremely negative impact on businesses both large and small, and has most certainly contributed to the negative impacts on the Nation's economy and the inability of this administration to create jobs and reduce employment below 9 percent in spite of massive record spending and crushing debt.

This bill is indeed common sense. It is a targeted approach at correcting some of the abuses. It is not about distribution of water. It is not actually even about the quality. It is about the process in which we are involved as to who gets to decide. And it also restates that the people who live in the States logically care about their own States and do not have to rely on the largess of the all-wise and all- important Federal Government to make decisions for them.

Passage of H.R. 2018 will not in any way gut the clean air regulations or endanger citizens into drinking dirty water. The EPA retains its ultimate authority. However, the bill has been narrowly drafted to preserve the authority of States to make decisions about their own quality standards without interference or retroactive second guessing by those inside the Beltway, bureaucrats who have little or no local knowledge of the conditions or qualities that are under their consideration.

The growing excesses of the EPA in second-guessing the States and retroactively revoking previously granted approvals must stop. The status quo hurts people, and it does not help the value or the quantity or the quality of our water.

This bill is a good start. It is not completion of the issue, but it is a good start in trying to provide balance and

rationality back into the public process that we have and, more importantly, allowing people to know that when decisions are made, they are not going to be arbitrarily taken away and changed in the future. No government can operate that way. No business can operate that way. This should not be the policy of the United States. This is a good bill. More importantly, this is an extremely fair rule, and I urge its adoption.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall), a member of the Rules Committee.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I am happy to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan).

I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

I have no further requests for time, and I am ready to close as well.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my good friend from Colorado and the way he has conducted the debate so far in this rule.

I have to admit, in closing on this particular bill, that as someone who as a State legislator worked on a complex that dealt with the largest undeveloped river in my district that went through and crossed six different State boundaries before it found its way to the Great Salt Lake, the idea that only the Federal Government can actually solve issues that happen between States or across State boundaries is somewhat almost insulting to the idea of the States.

It may be true that in every issue there is always some catalyst that brings it about. The issue in Florida and West Virginia--to which I responded--was a catalyst, but it is not the only situation that has provided the basis for this particular bill. We have a letter from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, which has written in support of this bill simply because Louisiana is currently facing a similar threat from the EPA.

The Chamber of Commerce strongly opposes several amendments to this piece of legislation, but they also wrote: ``The Clean Water Act grants States the primary responsibility for protecting water quality. However, recent actions by the EPA upset and supplant this partnership with arbitrary Federal power that is being exercised even over States with effective delegated regulatory programs. Individuals and firms that meet the requirements of, and obtain permits from, State regulators ought not to be left exposed to the enforcement whims and caprice of the Federal Government,'' which is the reality.

Finally, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture also talk about this bipartisan piece of legislation that addresses the Environmental Protection Agency's ongoing regulatory overreach, and that it allows the basis, if we pass this bill, for States and the Federal Government once again to be able to work together.

I have stated repeatedly that one of the problems we do have with the provisions of the Clean Water Act is the concept of accountability. Where is someone allowed to kind of comprehend against what the Federal Government does when it overreaches? Let me give you one specific example, since the gentleman from Tennessee did, and it states the same concept that happens to be there. I will call this guy Gene, because that's his first name. But he was a farmer on a family farm, a sugar beet farmer--which I would remind you is a root crop. You try to have a sugar beet crop in a wetland and you come up with just rotted vegetables. But one Federal bureaucrat from these agencies, driving by his property one day, seeing it flooded, declared it to be a wetland, even though the farmer said the only reason the water is here is because we have a pipe from the creek that goes over to the land. And when the farmer removed the pipe from the creek to show that the water was not naturally flowing into that area, he was threatened with a jail term if he actually moved that pipe one more time.

Now even though they took core samples from the water conservancy district to prove there was too much clay in that land to ever have any kind of water bubble up from the underground aquifers, this one bureaucrat from these agencies still maintained this was a wetland. When asked how long would it take to determine--even though the science is against him--that he is wrong in his determination, his response was, well, 6 to 7 years because I want to go through a wet and dry cycle to see if maybe per chance water may not come up again on this person.

Now the issue, and why I'm so passionate about this is because, for Gene, this farm was his heritage. More importantly, it was his retirement, and it was his legacy for his kids. And what one bureaucrat, using the broad powers given under the Clean Water Act, was able to do is basically impose a taking on this person's property without ever compensating him for it, because they didn't take the land away; they just told him what he could do with it and--more importantly, because of that regulation now on his property--for what he could sell. He was able to finally unload his property at a quarter of the value that a neighbor, which this one bureaucrat did not see, was able to sell his exact same lot on the exact same road with the exact same type of land. That is the unfairness that has developed with a bill that is so loosely written.

Two Supreme Court decisions have criticized the bill and implored Congress to go back there and do our jobs and to tighten it up so that you don't have conflicting strategies and conflicting patterns and conflicting rules and regulations in different parts of the country. That's what we're attempting to do here.

There is a pattern of abuse. It hurts people. It is time to respect the idea that States care as much about their own States as the Federal Government would care about their States. And you can make the presumption that they probably care more. That's why this is a good bill, and that's why this is an issue of Federalism.

This is going back to what the original Clean Water Act was supposed to do, to encourage and indeed control and ensure that there would be bipartisan cooperation between States and the Federal Government. And unfortunately, as the years have progressed, the role of the States have been diminished by arbitrary and capricious actions on the part of the Federal Government. That can no longer be. That is the status quo that is unacceptable. That needs to be changed. That is exactly what this bill is attempting to do.

In closing, I would like to reiterate the fairness of this structured rule and urge its adoption, as well as urging the adoption of the underlying legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

The previous question was ordered.

Mr. Chair, for the last seven months this nation's economy has stagnated while the Republican majority has passed a litany of bills repealing environmental standards on behalf of oil and coal companies. Today we have another anti-environment bill before the House, predictably mis-named, in the finest Orwellian tradition, the ``Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act.'' This bill is a case study in irony: After seven months of blaming economic malaise on regulatory ``uncertainty,'' this bill would eliminate predictable and consistent national clean water standards in favor of an uncertain state-based patchwork of regulations. This bill would be more appropriately titled the ``Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Small Minds Act,'' because its elimination of any regulatory certainty flies in the face of seven months of Republican rhetoric. On the other hand, as an assault on the environment which benefits Republican campaign donors, it is utterly consistent with the majority's modus operandi.

The majority claims to support an ``all of the above'' energy strategy, and that is accurate if we accept the Republican premise that coal and oil constitute the totality of America's energy portfolio. After passing countless bills to repeal clean air and water regulations for oil companies, this bill is focused on repealing clean water standards for the coal and mining industry. My colleagues who are not from Virginia, West Virginia, or Kentucky may not be familiar with the ravages of mountaintop removal, and if they aren't I would encourage them to look at a satellite photo of our region before they vote for this bill. Following Bush Administration abrogation of its responsibility to administer the Clean Water Act, destruction of the Southern Appalachian mountains has accelerated. For example, Wise County, Virginia has had 25 percent of its land area obliterated by mountaintop removal: According to the Nature Conservancy, Southwest Virginia is one of the two most biodiverse regions in America, along with Hawaii. Mountaintop removal is eliminating that region's biodiversity very efficiently. What used to be extraordinarily productive mountains in my state now resemble a moonscape of man-made plateaus and valleys filled in with rubble.

The purpose of this bill is to prevent Clean Water Act regulation of those ``valley fills'' which mining companies use to dispose of former mountains. Valley fills should be a clear violation of the Clean Water Act, and under the Obama Administration the EPA and Army Corps have finally begun to comply with the law and regulate them. This legislation would block that federal regulation which is necessary to protect life and property in Southwest Virginia and other parts of Appalachia.

This legislation would have other negative consequences beyond destroying one of America's greatest and most threatened regions. It is written in such a broad manner that it could allow unregulated destruction of intermittent and ephemeral streams, lakes and prairie potholes, and subterranean waters such as those that are common in places like Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. I strongly encourage my colleagues to reject this legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I would be remiss if I failed

to note the irony of the legislation before us today. After 7 months of ranting and raving about the lack of regulatory certainty which causes economic stagnation, the Republican majority is now attempting to pass a bill which would replace a clear, predictable, national clean water standard with an utterly unpredictable patchwork of State standards. Chaos does not federalism make, nor is one State's ability to sully a downstream State's waters consistent with the commerce clause of the United States Constitution.

This legislation, with the Orwellian title the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act, would endanger watersheds all across America, including the precious Chesapeake Bay in our region here in the National Capital Region. As my colleagues are aware, the bay watershed encompasses six States and the District of Columbia.

Logically, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies work in tandem with States throughout the watershed to reduce pollution entering the bay. Since watersheds do not correspond easily to State lines, this kind of interagency cooperation is essential and efficient to restore America's largest estuary.

H.R. 2018 would unravel that partnership, balkanizing water policy and undermining bay restoration. I have drafted a simple amendment, Mr. Chairman, to exempt watersheds like the Chesapeake Bay from this bill by limiting the bill's jurisdiction to watersheds which do not receive Federal aid for watershed restoration and related activities. This amendment would allow critical efforts, such as the restoration of the bay, Long Island Sound, the Great Lakes, Puget Sound, Gulf of Mexico, San Francisco Bay, and other great waters to continue. It would acknowledge the undeniable fact that water does not stop when it reaches the State line.

This amendment is important because these great waters are an integral part of our American heritage. The Chesapeake Bay was where John Smith arrived and founded Jamestown. The first colonial exploration of Virginia, also by John Smith, used the bay to explore the rivers of Virginia and Maryland. The Chesapeake is home to the French blockade of the British Navy, which enabled George Washington to have victory at Yorktown and a successful conclusion to the Revolutionary War.

For 200 years the Chesapeake Bay was one of America's most productive fisheries, fueling the growth of coastal communities such as Alexandria, Norfolk, and Baltimore, as well as an indigenous fleet of boats such as the skipjacks, deadrises, and bugeyes.

Unfortunately, development and overfishing wiped out many of the fisheries that were once so productive. When John Smith arrived in the bay, his crew had neglected to bring fishing line, but they were able to pull fish out of the bay by scooping them out of the water. Smith wrote that the oysters on the bay floor lay thick as stones and were so prolific that these filter feeders cleaned the entire volume of the bay daily. The shad runs up the James, Rappahannock, and Potomac Rivers were so immense that colonial observers noted it would have been possible to walk all the way from the James from Richmond to Manchester on the backs of fish without ever touching water.

These fish were so large and powerful that, when caught, they actually shook the first Manchester Bridge on its piers. Of course, the bay is part of a much larger watershed now that is as historic ecologically as the bay is itself.

To restore this great water body, many Federal agencies have been working in partnership with States, localities, and landowners. As written, H.R. 2018 would rupture that partnership, effectively giving any one State veto authority over the region's restoration efforts. My simple amendment would protect our ability to keep working together as a region to restore the bay.

This regional effort was first started at the Federal level by a Republican, my old friend, Republican U.S. Senator Charles ``Mac'' Mathias of Maryland. To the extent we are making progress today, it's a result of the partnership between Virginia, whose general assembly is investing over $100 million annually in private land conservation, a Republican-led initiative that was expanded under a Democratic Governor. Let us not turn our backs on this 30-year partnership.

I ask for your support for this commonsense amendment to continue the improvements to America's largest and most historic estuary, as well as our Nation's other great waters.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Let me say to my friend who is managing on the majority side, I spent 14 years in local government. We don't consider the Federal involvement in cleaning up the bay an undue burden. We actually consider it a partnership that has paid off big time, and we need more of it.

Support the Connolly Amendment to H.R. 2018

Protect these Great Waters: Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay,

Long Island Sound, South Florida/Everglades, Mississippi

River Basin, San Francisco Bay, Gulf of Mexico, Lake

Champlain, Puget Sound, Casco Bay (ME), New Hampshire

Estuaries, Massachusetts Bays, Buzzards Bay, Narragansett

Bay, Peconic Estuary, New York/NJ Harbor, Bernegat Bay,

Delaware Inland Bays, Maryland Coastal Bays, Southeast Coast,

Albermarle-Pamlico Sound, Indian River Lagoon, Gulf Coast,

Charlotte Harbor, Sarasota Bay, Tampa Bay, Mobile Bay,

Bataraia-Terrebonne Estuary, Galveston Bay, Coastal Bend Bay,

West Coast, Lower Columbia River, Tillamook Bay, Morro Bay

Dear Colleague, many of us have worked in collaboration

with partners at the state and local level to protect great

waters like the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, Everglades, Lake

Champlain, Long Island Sound, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound,

Mississippi Basin, and the Gulf of Mexico.

I have drafted a simple amendment to exempt these

watersheds and others that receive federal restoration

funding from H.R. 2018. This amendment would allow critical

efforts such as restoration to continue in acknowledgement of

the undeniable fact that water does not stop when it reaches

a state line. A more complete list of watersheds that would

be protected by this amendment can be found at the end of

this letter.

This amendment is important because these great waters are

an integral part of our American heritage. The Chesapeake

Bay, for example, was where John Smith arrived and founded

Jamestown. The first colonial exploration of Virginia, also

by John Smith, used the Bay to explore the rivers of Virginia

and Maryland. The Chesapeake is home to the French blockade

of the British Navy, which enabled George Washington's

victory at Yorktown and a successful conclusion to the

Revolutionary War. For two hundred years the Chesapeake was

one of America's most productive fisheries, fueling the

growth of coastal communities such as Alexandria, Norfolk,

and Baltimore, as well as an indigenous fleet of boats such

as the Skipjacks, Deadrises, and Bugeyes.

Unfortunately, development and overfishing wiped out many

of the fisheries that were once so productive. When John

Smith arrived in the Bay, his crew had neglected to bring

fishing line, but they were able to pull fish out of the Bay

by scooping them out of the water with frying pans. Smith

wrote that the oysters on the Bay floor ``lay thick as

stones'' and were so prolific that these filter

feeders cleaned the whole volume of the Bay daily. The shad

runs up the James, Rappahannock, and Potomac were so immense

that colonial observers noted it would have been possible to

walk across the James from Richmond to Manchester on the

backs of fish without ever touching water. These fish were so

large and powerful that, when caught, they shook the first

Manchester Bridge on its moorings. Of course, the Bay is part

of a much larger watershed that is as historic and

ecologically valuable as the Bay itself.

To restore this great water body many federal agencies have

been working in partnership with states, localities, and land

owners. As written, H.R. 2018 would rupture that partnership,

effectively giving any one state veto authority over the

region's Bay restoration efforts. This important amendment

would protect our ability to keep working together as a

region to restore the Bay and other great waters across

America.

Please support this amendment and contact

[email protected] (3-3122) with any questions.

Sincerely,

Gerald E. Connolly,

11th District, Virginia.

Watersheds and States that would be protected from H.R.

2018:

Great Lakes--NY, PA, OH, IL, IN, MN, WI, MI

Chesapeake Bay--NY, PA, MD, DE, VA, WV

Long Island Sound--CT, NY, RI

South Florida/Everglades--FL

Mississippi River Basin--MN, ND, SD, WY, CO, NM, TX, OK,

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.