Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank Members from both parties who joined in cosponsoring this bipartisan bill that will provide regulatory relief to our family farmers, in particular, my colleague, Mr. Boswell. Thank you very much. The EPA-mandated Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure program, or SPCC, requires that oil storage facilities with a capacity of over 1,320 gallons make costly infrastructure modifications to reduce the possibility of oil spills. The regulations require farmers to construct a containment facility, like a dike or a basin, which must retain 110 percent of the fuel in the container. These mandated infrastructure improvements--along with the necessary inspection and certification by a specially licensed professional engineer--will cost many farmers tens of thousands of dollars. In some cases, compliance costs could reach higher than $60,000 for a single farmer in my district. The SPCC program dates back to 1973, shortly after the Clean Water Act was signed into law. In the last decade, it has strictly come down on agriculture, and the rules have been amended, delayed, and extended dozens of times, creating enormous confusion in the farming community. On top of that, the EPA has failed to engage in effective outreach to producers and cooperatives on SPCC application.…”