William Tauzin: “That was an excellent discussion of how this bill does not have to cost money if the agencies start being responsible. I…”

“That was an excellent discussion of how this bill does not have to cost money if the agencies start being responsible. I want to give you a similar example. Mr. Spiller of Lake Fausse Point in Iberia Parish, LA, built a crawfish pond on his property, 80 acres. He was then told he did not apply for a 404 permit. He was told you need a 404 permit to do that. It is a wetlands. He said, well, of course it is a wetland; I want to raise crawfish. They said well, you still need a 404 permit, so he went and applied for a 404 permit. In the meantime EPA issued a cease and desist order and told him to take down the 35,000 dollars' worth of levees he had built in order to raise the crawfish, and that would cost another $4,000. He had to do that. It cost him $40,000 for nothing. And then he filed for his permit and EPA objected. Do you know why he was denied his permit to raise crawfish on that property? Because EPA decided and found that it was a natural habitat for red swamp crawfish. He was told he could not raise crawfish on the property because the crawfish were there already. I mean we get those crazy kinds of applications of the law, and the crawfish, you know, is not like the bald eagle, it is not likely endangered except by Cajuns like me and Mr. Hayes. It is fairly well prominent in Louisiana. And I thank the gentleman for his comments.”