[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 79 (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3938-H3939]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REPEAL OF WATERWAY REGULATION

  (Mr. BANKS of Indiana asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BANKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, as we debate the farm bill this 
week,

[[Page H3939]]

the House has an opportunity to permanently eliminate one of the worst 
examples of runaway government and unaccountable bureaucracy by the 
Obama administration.
  The 2015 waters of the United States rule, better known as WOTUS, is 
harmful to farmers and agricultural producers in Indiana and across the 
country. This rule gives unelected bureaucrats at the EPA the power to 
broadly interpret what is a navigable waterway. This rule can be 
interpreted in a way that even a puddle can be considered a navigable 
waterway subject to Federal regulation.
  I am proud to represent nearly 12,000 farms in northeast Indiana, and 
each and every one of these operations could be subject to this 
overreaching rule. At a time of falling commodity prices, the last 
thing that Hoosier farmers need is an ambiguous, broad, and costly 
government decree that seeks to regulate nearly every aspect of their 
operation.
  I applaud efforts by the Trump administration to delay this damaging 
rule, but it is time to permanently repeal WOTUS. I urge my colleagues 
to support its elimination as Congress considers the farm bill this 
week.

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