Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 199, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 27) providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency relating to ``Revised Definition of `Waters of the United States' '', and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Res. 27.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of H.J. Res. 27, which I introduced, to negate an ill-timed and ill-conceived rule coming out of the Biden administration which, if Congress fails to act, will go into effect later this month.

The Clean Water Act is landmark legislation that was signed into law 50 years ago that has greatly improved the health of the Nation's waters.

Unfortunately, we have consistently seen increasingly expansive interpretations of the Clean Water Act result in the implementation of a flawed and overreaching water policy. This has hindered our ability to achieve the Clean Water Act's true underlying water quality goals.

There is no clearer example of this overreach than the debate over the definition of waters of the United States, or WOTUS.

Decades of agency interpretation and misinterpretations have created uncertainty for rural communities, for farmers, for ranchers, for businesses and industries who rely on clean water.

Although the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule finally provided long-awaited clarity on the scope of WOTUS, the new administration decided to unravel the water protection rule and attempt to replace it, once again, creating confusion and chaos.

The definition of WOTUS matters to the everyday lives of people all over the country, including in my district.

For instance, I have a constituent who wanted to build a pond on his property and had received local and State permits to do just that. But then the Army Corps of Engineers, they stepped in and they said he would have to spend $165,000 in environmental mitigation. This is absolutely outrageous.

Returning to a more costly, burdensome, and broad WOTUS definition could have a massive impact on local communities and Americans' ability to do their jobs and manage their own private property.

I urge support of this joint resolution to stop this burdensome and overreaching WOTUS rule.

Mr. VAN ORDEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Biden administration's rule defining the waters of the United States, or WOTUS.

I am not going to mince words. These proposed changes would be more aptly named ``WOKEUS,'' as they are confusing, partially nonsensical, not based in science, and will cause many unintended consequences that the Biden administration has clearly not contemplated.

Under this new rule, over 85 percent of the waterways in Wisconsin's Third District would be subject to EPA regulation. In many places, these rule changes will actually harm the environment, as many of the farmers in my district are pioneers in environmental stewardship.

They have dug retention ponds that collect agricultural runoff, and then the nitrates and phosphates settle to the bottom. They recycle the water and these important nutrients, which actually lowers the costs and prevents them from entering the watersheds in the Mississippi River.

If this ``WOKEUS'' goes into effect, these revolutionary farming practices will stop and these agricultural byproducts will wind up in our actual navigable waterways. Then what will the Biden administration propose doing? Fining our farmers, putting them out of business, and increasing the food costs that are already out of control due to the out-of-control spending of the Biden administration.

Mr. Speaker, I stand with the farmers, and they stand in support of the CRA. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand with them.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Hageman).
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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WILLIAMS of New York. Mr. Speaker, this picture accurately captures the administration's definition of a navigable waterway. This child playing with a paper boat in a puddle created by a rainstorm would be subject to the almost comical definition of navigable waterways this bill would amend.

This child's family--if they had saved enough money to build their first home on this site with this rain puddle--could find themselves at the mercy of the impersonal, bureaucratic, and deliberately ambiguous rules of the EPA. Very quickly, this child's family would be drowned by the costs, paperwork, and Byzantine rules of a faceless bureaucracy.

Stop using EPA bureaucrats as agents against the American people: homeowners, small business owners, farmers, rural communities, and many others. These WOTUS rules are designed to give nearly unlimited power to EPA field agents to further control our delicate economy.

Nobel Prize-winner humanitarian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a victim of the cruel Soviet system, warned us with these words: ``Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.''

Protect American families and support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, while the Clean Water Act has greatly improved the health of our Nation's waters, expansive interpretations of it have also led to a whole lot of uncertainty in the 50 years since it was passed, specifically when it comes to the definition of WOTUS.

Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration may think that they can get away with this overbearing WOTUS rule and dramatic, dramatic expansion of Federal authority, but we have to ensure that everyday Americans are not subject to this outrageous government power grab, and that is what it is.

Let's keep flawed Federal overreach out of the government by passing H.J. Res. 27.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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