[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1089 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1089

To amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to 
 provide that a single Federal agency shall be responsible for making 
 technical determinations with respect to wetland or converted wetland 
                         on agricultural lands.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 24, 1993

   Mr. Bunning (for himself, Mr. Emerson, Mr. Penny, Mr. Hanse, Mr. 
   Herger, Mr. Sarpalius, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Mr. Stump, Mrs. 
  Vucanovich, Mr. Combest, Mr. Crane, Mr. Gillmor, Mr. Pombo, and Mr. 
 Inhofe) introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to 
   the Committees on Agriculture and Public Works and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to 
 provide that a single Federal agency shall be responsible for making 
 technical determinations with respect to wetland or converted wetland 
                         on agricultural lands.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Wetlands Simplification Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) technical determinations with respect to wetland or 
        converted wetland on agricultural lands (including the 
        identification of wetlands and the development of wetland 
        restoration and mitigation plans) are currently made by--
                    (A) the Soil Conservation Service, in consultation 
                with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, to 
                carry out subtitle C of title XII of the Food Security 
                Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3821 et seq.); and
                    (B) the Secretary of the Army, acting through the 
                Chief of Engineers, to carry out section 404 of the 
                Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344);
            (2) the system of separate determinations made under such 
        Acts has led to unnecessarily cumbersome and slow 
        decisionmaking and to a lack of consistency and unpredictable 
        results in determinations;
            (3) the lack of consistency places substantial burdens on 
        private property owners that could be alleviated if 
        responsibility for making the determinations was carried out by 
        one agency; and
            (4) the Soil Conservation Service has a long history of 
        working with agricultural producers to protect soil and water 
        resources, has considerable soils expertise, and has field 
        personnel in almost every county of the United States.
    (b) Purposes.--The purpose of this Act is to--
            (1) provide that a single Federal agency shall be 
        responsible for making technical determinations on agricultural 
        lands with respect to wetland or converted wetland (including 
        the identification of wetland and the development of wetland 
        restoration and mitigation plans), in order to reduce confusion 
        among agricultural producers; and
            (2) provide that the Soil Conservation Service, in 
        consultation with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 
        shall be the Federal agency responsible for all such technical 
        determinations concerning wetland and converted wetland on 
        agricultural lands.

SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE WITH WETLAND CONSERVATION REQUIREMENTS.

    Section 1222(j) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 
3822(j)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) Effect of determinations.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Notwithstanding any other 
                provision of law, a technical determination made under 
                this section with respect to wetland or converted 
                wetland on agricultural lands (including the 
                identification of wetland under paragraph (1) and the 
                development of a wetland restoration or mitigation plan 
                developed under paragraph (1)) shall be used in the 
                administration of section 404 of the Federal Water 
                Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344).
                    ``(B) Consistency.--Any area of agricultural land 
                or any activities related to the land determined to be 
                exempt from the requirements of this subtitle shall 
                also be exempt from the requirements of section 404 of 
                the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
                1344) so long as those lands are used as agricultural 
                lands.
                    ``(C) Definition.--For purposes of this paragraph, 
                the term `agricultural lands' means cropland, 
                pastureland, native pasture, rangeland, orchards, 
                vineyards, nonindustrial forest land, and any other 
                land used to produce or support the production of an 
                annual or perennial crop of a commodity, aquaculture 
                product, nursery product, or livestock.''.

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