Political Quotes

“this legislation does two things. First, it stops the final rule on the waters of the United States, and second, it weakens the underlying Clean Water Act, something I would hope none of us would want to do. I urge my colleagues to reject the motion to proceed. Let me tell you what is at risk here. What is at risk is about one- half of our Nation's stream miles from being protected under the Clean Water Act. Their water supply would not be protected. What is at stake here? Twenty million acres of wetlands could go unprotected because of being denied protection under the Clean Water Act. What is at risk here? The water supply for 117 million Americans--1 out of every 3 Americans. The source of their water could very well come from unregulated supplies being exempt from the Clean Water Act. I don't think we want to do that. I agree with my colleagues that we want to have certainty. That is why we want the rule to move forward. But it does more than that--the underlying bill. It also changes the standard that would be judged in deciding what is to be regulated waters. The current law says it is to ``restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters.'' In other words, it is science-based. If we need to regulate in order to protect our water supply, we can regulate. That is what we are trying to achieve--regulating waters that end up in our streams, waters that end up in our water supply.…”