Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, today I rise to urge support for my amendment, which would reaffirm and preserve the rights of the States to write their own water quality plans.

My amendment simply prohibits the EPA from using its Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load and the so-called watershed implementation plans to hijack States' water quality strategies.

Over the last several years, the EPA has implemented a Total Maximum Daily Load blueprint for the six States in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which strictly limits the amount of nutrients that can enter the Chesapeake Bay. Through its implementation, the EPA has basically given every State in the watershed an ultimatum: either the State does exactly what the EPA says or it faces the threat of an EPA takeover of its water quality programs.

Congress intended that the implementation of the Clean Water Act be a collaborative approach, through which the States and the Federal Government work together. This process was not meant to be subject to the whims of politics and bureaucrats in Washington. Therefore, my amendment instructs the EPA to respect the important role States play in implementing the Clean Water Act.

I want to make it perfectly clear that this amendment would not stop the EPA from working with the States to restore the Chesapeake Bay, nor would it undermine the cleanup efforts already underway. My language only removes the ability of the EPA to take over a State's plan or to take retaliatory actions against the State if it does not meet EPA- mandated goals. Again, it ensures States' rights remain intact and not usurped by the EPA.

It is important to point out that the correlation between the EPA's outrageous waters of the United States rule and the Bay TMDL, at the heart of both issues is the EPA's desire to control conservation and water quality improvement efforts throughout the country and to punish all those who dare to oppose them.

The bay is a national treasure, and I want to see it restored, but we know that in order to achieve this goal, the States and the EPA must work together. The EPA cannot be allowed to railroad the States and micromanage the process.

This amendment has passed the House with bipartisan support several times, and I urge my colleagues to once again vote to ask the EPA to respect the important role States play in implementing the Clean Water Act and prevent another Federal power grab by the administration.

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Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

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Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

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Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), the chairman of the committee.

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Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, in closing, let me just say, this amendment does not in any way take any resources away from any of the six States in the Chesapeake Bay region to improve water quality. What it does take away is the ability of the EPA to dictate to those States one way, their way, to do it.

The Clean Water Act was written with it in mind that the Federal Government would set the standards and the States would figure out how to meet those standards. And that flexibility has been taken away starting in the Obama administration, and it is time for this Congress to stop them from doing that so that we can have the kind of collaborative effort just described by the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Calvert, and get back to doing things the right way.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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