Navigable Waters Protection Rule

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, last week, I had the pleasure of joining the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for an event announcing NWPA, or the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, a rule that will replace the flawed 2015 WOTUS, Waters of the United States rule.

For decades, there has been confusion and never-ending litigation over WOTUS. During my time as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee, which included watersheds and oversees environmental policy regarding agriculture, I heard from many farmers and ranchers, landowners, and environmental advocates about just how harmful WOTUS was to their businesses and to their way of life.

WOTUS was a gross overreach and particularly dangerous for the agriculture industry, as vast new areas of farmlands would be subject to the Clean Water Act and costly new permitting mandates for the very first time, even beyond our farms and ranches. Anyone who owned any property, private property rights would be regulated. Ninety-nine percent of Pennsylvania was swept under these overreaching WOTUS regulations.

In addition to taking away States' authority to manage water resources, the 2015 WOTUS rule expanded the Clean Water Act far beyond the law's historical limits of navigable waters and the long-held intent of Congress. Instead of providing much-needed clarity to the Clean Water Act, WOTUS created even more confusion.

Thankfully, the negative impact of WOTUS was brought to an end when the Trump administration repealed it this past fall.

I support the Clean Water Act, and I agree that it must be clarified. However, this must be done without undue burdens on farmers, landowners, private property owners, and commercial activities that are already effectively regulated by the States.

Times have been very tough over the past decade for many farmers in rural areas. An average farm income was nearly halved during that period. Regulatory uncertainty--notably, the former WOTUS rule--only made things more difficult.

I am confident, however, that the new Navigable Waters Protection Rule is a step in the right direction and will address many of the regulatory gray areas that WOTUS did not. This new rule clearly defines four commonsense categories of Federal waters that would be regulated, while providing clarity on what is not regulated. This includes ditches, isolated ponds, and prior converted croplands.

The Navigable Waters Protection Rule will still support strong water protections without compromising the rights of States and without unnecessary burdens to the agriculture industry.

With clearly defined State and Federal regulations, our Nation's farmers can continue to focus on what they provide all of us: food, fiber, building materials, and energy that we all rely upon.

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