Pat Danner: “I rise in support of H.R. 961 which maintains and builds on the current safeguards in place and complements the needs of…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 961 which maintains and builds on the current safeguards in place and complements the needs of States for flexibility. Those directly responsible for water quality in our communities, such as the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, support H.R. 961 because it makes environmental benefit a primary focus of H.R. 961 and establishes a program that Congress can support in a truly bipartisan approach to solving our Nation's pollution dilemmas. Let me read just one sentence from a letter that we have received from the presidents of respectively the National Association of Counties, National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, not the Members of Congress, but members who represent our constituency across the United States. Charges, and I quote exactly, charges that H.R. 961 rolls back environmental protection and that it guts the Clean Water Act are totally unfounded. The measure restores common sense to this unaffordable and undoable mandate.”