James Oberstar: “Mr. Speaker, I rise to object to the anti-environmental provision of this conference report. That provision is a direct…”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to object to the anti-environmental provision of this conference report. That provision is a direct assault on the Clean Water Act. It prevents the EPA from proceeding with a final rulemaking on the Total Minimum Daily Load proposed rule which has been under consideration for several years and which is important to addressing the last frontier of the Clean Water Act: discharges from open spaces, runoff from land that gets into our waters through our creeks and streams, into lakes and rivers, and into estuaries. It is regrettable that language was inserted in conference in this bill to prevent EPA from moving ahead to improve the quality of the Nation's waters.”