Clean Water Act Challenges

CLEAN WATER ACT CHALLENGES -- (Senate - June 22, 2006)

Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, the Supreme Court's decision earlier this week in the consolidated cases of Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. Army Corps of Engineers should be a source of great concern in this body and this Nation. The plurality opinion, while it did not win the support of a majority of the court, is completely at odds with the text and purpose of the Clean Water Act, would put much of the Nation's waters in jeopardy, and as many have noted, will likely lead to increased litigation.

To prevent further legal wrangling about what Congress meant when it passed what has come to be one of the country's fundamental public health and environmental statutes, Congress must pass the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act. This legislation, S. 912, which I most recently introduced in April 2005, reestablishes protection for all waters historically covered by the Clean Water Act. It also makes clear that Congress's primary concern in 1972 was to protect the Nation's waters from pollution, rather than just sustain the navigability of waterways, and it reinforces that original intent.

Mr. President, I hope that my colleagues--the 85 who are not cosponsors of the bill--will now join me, in light of this week's Supreme Court ruling, to clarify that all of the Nation's waters are important for the health and vitality of our country by supporting passage of the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act.

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