[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4577]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                THE EPA

  (Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker and ladies and gentlemen, I 
rise today to speak about H.R. 872.
  I was pleased to see this resolution pass the Agriculture Committee 
with a bipartisan vote. Not one single objection. I want you to think 
about that. Not one objection from a Democrat or a Republican in the 
Agriculture Committee.
  It somewhat baffles me that we have to waste floor time in the U.S. 
House of Representatives to help the EPA understand that they're 
creating regulations that they themselves do not understand.
  Mr. Speaker, the EPA already requires pesticide permits from every 
farmer, rancher, forest manager, State agency, city, county 
municipality, mosquito control districts, water districts, and golf 
courses, just to name a few of those that they require permits from. If 
we do not enact H.R. 872, the EPA would then require an additional 
Clean Water Act permit for pesticides. I will add again, Mr. Speaker, 
that many of these permits are already redundant as pesticide 
applications are already highly regulated under the FIFRA Act.
  We all care about the environment, but these EPA regulations fail the 
common sense test, Mr. Speaker. That agency is on a regulatory path of 
the destruction of our economy. They are destroying our jobs, and they 
must be reined in.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps we need a permit for the EPA that says the EPA 
must understand a rule before they pass one.

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