On the recordJanuary 13, 2016
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S.J. Res. 22, which vacates this overreaching and, frankly, unnecessary waters of the U.S. rule. It prevents the EPA and the Corps of Engineers from moving forward. I think the problem that has made itself real prevalent--and the chairman just talked about this as well--is it is not what is on the top line. It is what is on the exemption line. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about, but the problem I come to with this--because we have been dealing with this in my part of the world--and I appreciate the previous speaker from Louisiana talking about the watershed there--is that I am from northeast Georgia, where we are in the foothills of the mountains. So, in the bottom, you have the creeks, the tributaries. We have Lake Lanier, the Chattahoochee River, Lake Hartwell. We have a lot of areas that fall here. What is interesting to me--and what my friend from across the aisle basically said--and what is offensive to me is to come to a place and say that, just because we are going to work on a Clean Water Act, we are going to work on a reauthorization, we take it from Congress and say that people downtown in cubicles who do not know my district and who understand that they have an agenda to push will make rules and make regulations that affect the livelihood of people. When you take it from Congress, where it should be, that is offensive. I agree with my friend. It should be here.…
