Martin Hoke: “let us think about and talk about, just for a moment, exactly what the 104th Congress has done with respect to the…”

“let us think about and talk about, just for a moment, exactly what the 104th Congress has done with respect to the environment, because there is so much deception that is being propagated about it, it is difficult to separate the truth from the reality or from the fiction. The reality is that for the first time ever this Congress actually passed a Clean Water Act that provides for relief from and accounting for nonpoint source pollution. We had never done that before. This Congress increased the funding for the Clean Water Act from $1.2 to $2.4 billion, a tremendous increase. This Congress did not weaken one single regulation with respect to the standards themselves, but what this Congress did do is, it shifted where the focus of enforcement will be. It shifted it away from Washington, Washington bureaucrats with a one-size-fits-all attitude and approach, and to the States. There is, in fact, notwithstanding the fact that many would like us to believe otherwise, there is no difference with respect to the goal, but there is a tremendous difference with respect to the way we get there, the process.”