On the recordSeptember 7, 2017
In 1977, Congress made a deliberate policy choice to exempt ordinary farming, silviculture, ranching, mining, related activities, from the requirements to obtain Clean Water Act permits when undertaken as normal activities: prepare and maintain land, roads, ponds, and ditches. Unfortunately, we heard concern for several years that, under the Obama administration, the EPA and the Corps of Engineers changed implementation of these provisions to significantly reduce the application of the statutory exemptions. Section 430 of the bill makes clear that Congress has always intended that statutory exemptions are to have meaning, that the agencies cannot simply ignore the will of Congress as set out by law. For these reasons and a number of others, I oppose the amendment and urge a ``no'' vote. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
