[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11399]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             EPA OVERREACH

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned how the 
EPA has overreached on making every drop of water that basically falls 
in the United States under its jurisdiction. Whether it falls on your 
field, on your driveway, or on your roof and is collected in a rain 
barrel or in a puddle, they seem to want to be in control of it.
  Before our Independence Day holiday, they added another rule into the 
Federal Register where they seek to be the judge, jury, and executioner 
on deciding what the fines are going to be and how they are going to 
carry them out without jurisprudence or oversight by an independent 
party. They seek to, instead, be the ones that collect the fines after 
finding somebody guilty of a possible alleged violation.
  EPA has already nearly tripled the amount of fines it has taken in 
since 2009, so is this really about the environment or is it about 
revenue generation and putting the people that are out there trying to 
make a living and make things happen in the United States on the 
defensive?
  I think they need to pull back this rule and hear from the American 
people, Mr. Speaker, about how devastating this is for the economy and 
for the well-being of Americans.

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