Roy Blunt: “I rise in strong support of this effort to turn back this rule. The rule has been well explained by the Senator from…”

“I rise in strong support of this effort to turn back this rule. The rule has been well explained by the Senator from Iowa. Her efforts are about all that Congress can currently do. Frankly, I would hope that we can figure out how to go further so that the Congress has to approve every rule that is issued by every agency of government that has significant economic impact. It is, frankly, hard to imagine a rule that has a more wide-ranging impact or more economic impact than this one does. As has been well pointed out, the authority given to the EPA under the Clean Water Act was very consistent with Federal discussions and debates for 170 years. I think 1846 was the first time the term ``navigable waters'' was used in Federal law, in a bill that James Knox Polk--President Polk actually vetoed the bill, but the term was understood, and it quickly came back into Federal law, and it meant exactly what it said: navigable waters of the United States. Why would that be a Federal responsibility? Because ``navigable'' means you can move something on it. ``Moving something on it'' means commerce, and one of the principal reasons for the Constitution was to regulate interstate commerce. So this is a long-established principle. Yes, there is some Federal responsibility for those avenues of commerce in the country--areas, rivers, waterways you can navigate.…”