Jim Saxton: “I would just like to say if you represent a coastal State and if you look at the provisions of this bill as it stands…”

“I would just like to say if you represent a coastal State and if you look at the provisions of this bill as it stands today and if you think that is good for your economy, then you should have spent the years of the middle 1980's with me in New Jersey or with the Representatives of Long Island when water was dirty. Those were the dirty water days. And we got past them. If you think that doing damage to the wetlands provisions as they exist today, in removing 90 percent of the wetlands in my home State from the rolls of wetlands, if you think that is good for my economy, then you should vote for this bill. If you think it is good for the economy to gut the CZMA provisions that pertain to nonpoint source pollution, I do not think it is, but if you think it is, then you should vote for this bill. I would just say that the Coastal States Association does not think that is good, because we have adopted their provisions, and we have done that in the name of the economy.”