John Culberson: “I hope to provide some clarity to this by quoting directly from the guidance that the agency has given us. Now, it's…”

“I hope to provide some clarity to this by quoting directly from the guidance that the agency has given us. Now, it's important to remember that this is guidance, not a rule. The Obama administration, President Obama has repeatedly and proudly said that if Congress won't act, he will. Last week he said he was going to stand up and, through executive order, do all that he can to try to bring carbon emissions under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government and try to restrict CO<INF>2</INF> by executive order. Here the Obama administration is doing what the law says it can't do, and that is expand the jurisdiction of the EPA and the Army Corps by guidance, not by using a rule. The law says they have to issue a rule, get public input, have hearings. Here they simply got a bunch of their lawyers together and issued guidance to their agencies around the country. And to quote directly from the guidance, the Obama administration directs: The agencies to interpret waters in the region to be the watershed boundary defined by the geographic area that drains to the nearest downstream traditional navigable water or interstate water through a single point of entry. The geographic boundary, every stream, every rivulet, no matter how vertical it is, the Supreme Court and the statute said the EPA is limited to regulating navigable waters.…”