Political Quotes

“I am pleased to introduce this amendment on behalf of my distinguished colleague and fellow member of the Natural Resources Committee, Representative Bill Flores of Texas. The National Ocean Policy, created under Executive Order 13547, was signed by President Obama in 2010 and requires that various bureaucracies work together to essentially ``zone the ocean'' and the sources thereof, largely affecting the ways in which we utilize our ocean resources and impacting both our marine and inland economy. {time} 1900 You have heard of a land grab. This is an ocean grab. This is a simple amendment. It says that none of the funds made available by this act can be used to implement, administer, or enforce this executive order. This policy has large implications for our marine resources, but reaches much further than the ocean itself. Essentially, a drop of rain that falls on your land could cause the Federal Government to have jurisdiction over your property under the notion that this drop will eventually wind up in the ocean. That the EPA, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, recently released a ``Waters of the U.S.'' rule which vastly expands the agency's jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act by redefining ``navigable waterways'' serves as an example. I commend the committee for including a provision in this bill barring the implementation of such a rule.…”