Bud Shuster: “I will conclude and yield myself the balance of my time, first, by thanking Mr. Rahall for working with us to come…”

“I will conclude and yield myself the balance of my time, first, by thanking Mr. Rahall for working with us to come forward with a commonsense approach to stopping another grab by the executive branch. I also want to thank Congressman Steve Southerland from Florida, who introduced H.R. 5078. Mr. Southerland has been a leader on the water issue since he arrived in Congress. As we have been talking about here, and as Mr. Rahall agrees, this proposed rule would significantly increase the geographic scope of the Federal Government's authority under the act and is outside the bounds of what can legitimately be done by the rulemaking. It also is going to create great uncertainty within the many industries in this country. The rulemaking proposed by the administration is yet another example of the disturbing pattern as this Presidency seeks to use brute force to expand executive action while ignoring Congress and the Supreme Court. I would urge all the Members, all 435 Members of this body, to look seriously at this piece of legislation and what this administration is trying to do. The President tries to grab Congress' legitimate constitutional authority. And if you have any doubts on that, the Supreme Court, twice, rejected a rulemaking by the EPA. I think all 435 of us ought to be looking closely, whether it is a Republican or a Democrat administration, at these power grabs by the executive branch.…”