Roy Blunt: “Thank you, Mr. President. We are here today to vote in about half an hour on overriding the President's veto, a…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. We are here today to vote in about half an hour on overriding the President's veto, a congressional action that would not have allowed the country to move forward with the so-called waters of the United States rule. The waters of the United States sounds like a lot until you look at the map beside me. This is a map of the State of Missouri and of what would be covered under EPA jurisdiction, if this rule is allowed to go into effect. This is a map from the Missouri Farm Bureau that nobody has taken issue with, and the red part of our State would be covered by Federal Government authority. So 99.7 percent of the State would suddenly be under the jurisdiction of the EPA on all things related to water: water running off the parking lot, water running off your driveway, water running off your roof, water falling into your yard, water falling into a vacant lot if someone wants to build a house on that vacant lot--all of those things in 99.7 percent of the State. I think that three-tenths of 1 percent may be some unusual seepage area where the water runs away in a way that the EPA hasn't yet figured out how to assert jurisdiction over. The law passed in the early 1970s, the Clean Water Act, said that the EPA would have jurisdiction over navigable waters. So, if you believe the EPA and believe this rule and believe in the President's veto, navigable waters would apparently be every drop of water in 99.7 percent of Missouri.…”