BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 935, which prevents wasteful and duplicative regulations that could ultimately expand the EPA's reach further into every part of our country.
Federal law already requires the EPA to ensure that pesticides cause ``no unreasonable adverse effect'' to humans or the environment. Labels attached to pesticides that are related to its use are crafted to minimize such impacts. The label, in effect, is the law today. When a person does not follow the label, regardless of additional permits, they are violating the law.
Yet activists believe requiring water permits, even when a user abides by the pesticide label, will somehow strengthen our water quality. States continue to spend more and more money and man hours implementing and enforcing a water permit process that most regulators do not believe does anything to further protect the water quality. That is why H.R. 935 is so important.
This bill removes a pointless paperwork exercise and burden through NPDES permits that do nothing but create additional hurdles between consumers and the benefits of products like pesticides provide.
Registration and labeling of a pesticide already does as much as any additional NPDES permit would require. In fact, EPA's own analysis suggests that the NPDES permits program for pesticides is the single greatest expansion in the program's history, covering over 5.5 million pesticide applications per year by 365,000 applicators.
If H.R. 935 is not implemented, the effects of the EPA's overregulation would be felt across the State of Georgia. For example, county officials will have one more hurdle to overcome when trying to control the mosquito population and the outbreak of West Nile virus. These counties are forced to address an additional bureaucratic hurdle before they are able to address a serious health threat to our citizens, a hurdle that provides no additional benefits.
With this unprecedented expansion, all stakeholders are affected, including State agencies, cities, counties, municipalities, research scientists, forest managers--and every American will pay for this. Last Congress, we passed this same legislation, 292-130, and I ask Congress to, again, do the same thing.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT