[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY IS OUT OF CONTROL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to call attention to the 
fact that the Environmental Protection Agency is absolutely out of 
control. They have adopted a policy of any means is justified by its 
political ends. They seem absolutely determined to destroy the family 
farm as we know it today. They have completely abandoned sound science, 
or any science, for that matter. They pursue the idea that any 
regulation is a good regulation as long as it causes a lot of chaos and 
economic disruption.
  Earlier this year, EPA attempted to regulate as a point source 
silviculture in this country. They have pretty well been falled by that 
effort. But now they are attempting, in a rather secretive way, to try 
to regulate aquaculture, another very important agricultural pursuit in 
this country.
  They have absolutely no scientific data indicating that there is a 
problem with pollution with aquaculture industry. After all, these 
farmers raise fish, they do not want their produce growing in polluted 
water.
  The Environmental Protection Agency, as part of their plan to 
implement their regulatory process based on the economic success of 
their producers, they have this form that they are asking our 
aquaculture producers to fill out. And if they do not fill it out, 
there will be a penalty and they will be in violation of a Federal law 
and there is a severe threat.
  One of the questions they ask, and they do not ask any questions in 
this form, not one, about water quality or how they treat your water. 
What they do ask, Mr. Speaker, is, If this company borrows money to 
finance capital improvements, such as waste water treatment equipment, 
what interest rates would they pay? In the event that this company does 
not borrow money to finance capital improvements, what equity rate 
would it use? When you finance capital improvements, what is the 
approximate mix of debt and equity? What are your revenues from 
aquaculture? The revenue from other agriculture activities that are co-
located with aquaculture? What are other farm facility revenues? Do you 
get Government payments and how much are those Government payments? Is 
there other non-farm income? What are the total revenues? And the list 
goes on and on, Mr. Speaker.
  This is not a questionnaire to help improve the water quality of this 
country or the areas where aquaculture is located. This is an attempt 
to destroy an industry, one more attempt by the Environmental 
Protection Agency to destroy agriculture in this country as we know it.
  It is time for it to stop. Enough is enough.
  The Environmental Protection Agency should be the premier scientific 
agency of this Nation. And yet, it has turned itself into nothing more 
than a political yardage to pursue perfectly legitimate and harmless 
industries.

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