Gregory Laughlin: “I first want to thank the distinguished chairman of our committee for turning this bill into a truly bipartisan bill…”

“I first want to thank the distinguished chairman of our committee for turning this bill into a truly bipartisan bill, and I commend our last chairman, the gentleman from California [Mr. Mineta], for tying to work with us in the last Congress to pass a clear water bill. But let me set the record straight about the we-and-the-they and the special interests. Half the Democrats on the Transportation Infrastructure Committee have supported this bill, not three or four, not a couple from the South, not a couple of boll weevils, 50 percent, have supported this. Mr. Chairman, I want to rise in support of the bill and encourage the continuation of the bipartisan support. Not only do I support the bill, I want to address a focus on the nonpoint source pollution provisions, especially as they relate to agriculture. Too often we have tried to clean up the water of America by saying it is agriculture's fault, and when we come to cleaning up, look in the last few years, we have put over $60 billion into the point source, yet we put less than $1 billion into nonpoint source, and we have tried to tell agriculture across America, ``You have got to do it by these rules,'' when in fact agriculture in one part of the country has a different focus and a different set of rules and a different set of criteria, and we cannot clean up the agricultural lands of America simply by having one set of rules that fit all.”