James Oberstar: “since the gentleman has either himself or perhaps one other speaker remaining, I yield myself the balance of our time.…”

“since the gentleman has either himself or perhaps one other speaker remaining, I yield myself the balance of our time. Mr. Chairman, the previous speakers have missread the issue. The holding by the Supreme Court very clearly stated, this is the exact language, says that the Clean Water Act jurisdiction cannot be asserted based solely on the presence of migratory birds. Previous speakers have alluded to other issues that have nothing to do with the question at hand. So the Corps of Engineers no longer can make decisions based on presence of migratory birds. Now, if we take the interpretation of what the Corps of Engineers and the EPA have done in previous cases and applied it to the district of the gentleman in the chair, presiding at this moment, we would not have been able to put in place very likely, the Rochester Flood Control Project and the Soil and Water Conservation projects investing over $100 million dollars to protect the City of Rochester from flooding. Mr. Chairman, that just does not make sense. Now, all of those who have said the Clean Water Act meant this and meant that, I was on the staff at the time of the Clean Water Act passage in the House. In fact, I was involved in drafting the language that is at stake here. The issues that the gentleman, the chairman of the subcommittee raised, have to do with nonpoint-source discharges.…”