Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURLISON. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act, a bill that pushes back against the out- of-control EPA and ensures that important projects are approved in a timely manner.

The EPA has used the Clean Water Act to delay or block projects and ensure a radical climate agenda is fulfilled, all at the cost of projects that are critical for the United States.

The EPA is often inconsistent, not transparent, and unfair in its decisions to approve projects, even when those projects have no negative impact on the environment.

This bill will cut red tape, strengthen the permitting process in favor of those seeking the permits, provide clarity to the EPA to ensure that they are following what the law intends, and, most importantly, fight back against the militant climate agenda.

Look, we all know that the EPA can be a bad actor in the permitting process, but they are not the only ones that are standing in the way. We also have to deal with these environmental groups that continually sue to delay these projects from going through, claiming that the costs outweigh the benefits. Of course, we know what they really mean--these projects don't further their climate agenda, so they must be stopped.

That is why this bill includes my legislation, the Judicial Review Timeline Clarity Act. The Judicial Review Timeline Clarity Act ensures that any lawsuit seeking judicial review of a section 404 general or individual permit must be filed within the first 60 days of the permit's issuance.

If the court decides that the Army Corps did not comply with the law in approving projects, it will be remanded back to the Secretary, where they have 180 days to take action that the court has ordered.

Businesses are busy. They are already buried under regulation after regulation which takes obscene amounts of time and resources to comply with. In this case, they already have to demonstrate that these projects will have basically no impact on the health of water or show that they have exhausted all alternatives to discharging.

Even with these strict regulations, environmental groups sue to stall these projects, claiming that they will have a negative impact on the environment. The goal is to keep them held up in court.

Our court system is already being attacked from every angle. Let's not let the environmentalists continue to manipulate the courts to push their climate religion. It should be an efficient and speedy process so businesses can build the infrastructure that our country depends on.

The Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act will bring needed reforms to litigation and ensure any challenge to these permits are efficient, fast, and fair.

In closing, I thank the work of Chairman Graves and Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer.

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