Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this amendment prohibits the use of funds to take retaliatory actions against individual States. Importantly, this amendment would not prevent the EPA from working with States to restore the bay. In 1985, the States in the Chesapeake Bay region recognized the need to address pollutants in the bay and, through their own initiative, came together to conduct cleanup efforts. These State-driven efforts were largely successful. As a matter of fact, water quality improved almost 50 percent from 1985 to 2010. However, in 2010, the EPA seized the States' authority to determine their own continued compliance and threatened to dictate Federal requirements if the States were unable to comply. This 2010 power grab, known as the Chesapeake Bay TMDL, directly contradicts the intent of the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act clearly acknowledges State authority in water quality and requires cooperation rather than coercion between the States and the Federal Government. These coercive methods have been tried and imposed and have failed. Actually, water quality has not improved since the federalization of the bay cleanup efforts. It is simply imperative that we return the constitutional rights of the States to make their own water quality improvement decisions and restore the State control that has been shown to actually improve water quality. The future of the Chesapeake Bay depends on it. {time} 1730 Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”