Joe Baca: “Thank you very much. I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Tim Bishop, our third baseman--an excellent third…”

“Thank you very much. I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Tim Bishop, our third baseman--an excellent third baseman--for yielding the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 872, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011. I want to thank Nutrition and Horticulture Subcommittee Chair Jean Schmidt and I also want to thank Water Resources Subcommittee Chair Bob Gibbs for their leadership on this issue. I appreciate the opportunity to work with my colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to jointly resolve an important issue and to build a relationship across jurisdictions and across the aisle. H.R. 872 is a straightforward bipartisan bill that creates a necessary fix to the flawed National Cotton Council v. EPA Sixth Circuit Court decision. If the decision is implemented, pesticide applicators will be forced into a duplicative regulatory process that would require permitting under both FIFRA and the Clean Water Act. We don't need to duplicate. We don't need additional costs and burdens on many of the individuals. We need one agency that can handle it, not two agencies. While the new regulation will provide no environmental benefit, it will add millions in new costs to State regulating agencies, agricultural producers, mosquito control districts, and small businesses. The EPA understands this. That's why they have helped us write this bill.…”