Melvin Watt: “I do not know of any agency in the Federal Government that is over there writing regulations, unless they are writing…”

“I do not know of any agency in the Federal Government that is over there writing regulations, unless they are writing those regulations pursuant to statutes that we passed in this body. And if we do not like the regulations that they write pursuant to our statutes, then we ought to change the statutes. We ought to have the guts to stand up and say ``We do not like the Clean Water Act, we do not like the Endangered Species Act, and we are going to do away with them,'' rather than coming and telling the American people that somebody else over there on the other side of town has done something that we do not like, even though they are acting pursuant to the authority that we gave them. This is the ultimate opportunity, political opportunity, to pass the buck and beat up on some Federal agency that is doing exactly what we authorized them to do, and we ought to reject this amendment and either accept the underlying bill on the principle that it stands for, or vote it down. Do not pass the buck. Have the heart to do what you want to do up front with the American people.”