[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H8048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FARMERS NEED WATER

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, with the 50th anniversary of the Clean 
Water Act, it is important to remind the Biden administration that 
Congress did not give the EPA jurisdiction over every puddle in 
America, despite what they are trying to claim.
  The 2015 Waters of the United States rule was nothing short of a land 
and water grab that gave bureaucrats the ability to meddle in 
intermittent and ephemeral streams, such as the kind farmers use for 
draining and irrigation.
  Under the 2015 WOTUS rule, the EPA could fine farmers thousands of 
dollars if they simply rotated from one crop to another on their own 
land without first gaining permission from a Government entity.
  Then the Trump administration, through the Navigable Waters 
Protection Rule, eliminated the significant nexus standard set by the 
WOTUS rule which solved much of the overreach and uncertainty around 
it.
  The Navigable Waters Protection Rule clearly identified WOTUS in six 
categories and made further clarifications of the definitions of 
tributaries and adjacent wetlands.

  So I was very dismayed by the EPA's and U.S. Corps of Engineers' 
decision to reverse the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule and 
restart the rulemaking process around the definition of what is a 
navigable water.
  If President Biden were serious about helping farmers grow food to 
supply Americans and the world during this global food shortage, he 
would return to the Navigable Waters Protection Rule to give farmers 
certainty and then customers at the grocery store shelf certainty in 
price and availability of food.

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