[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16976]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       DRINKING WATER PROTECTIONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this week the Senate will vote on two pieces 
of legislation that will nullify drinking water protections for 117 
million Americans.
  The Obama administration's clean water rule will restore important 
safeguards to protect American water sources from pollution and 
contamination. This landmark rule from the Obama administration will 
finally resolve years of confusion and provide regulatory certainty for 
businesses, farmers, local governments, and communities without 
creating any new permitting requirements and maintaining all previous 
exemptions and exclusions.
  The Republicans in Congress are intent on undermining these important 
protections. The Republican leader and his colleagues unfortunately are 
forcing the Senate to vote on legislation to roll back President 
Obama's clean water rule. This legislation will fail, of course, and 
Republicans know it will fail.
  Last week, the junior Senator from Texas said this:

       [N]ext week we will have a show vote on the waters of the 
     United States. Leadership is very happy. We will have a show 
     vote. We will get to vote, and it will fail.

  Perhaps the junior Senator is right; this is another Republican 
charade. I hope not. If these bills were to pass, President Obama will 
veto them. Yet Republicans are content to waste the Senate's time just 
so they can launch another attack on the environment. This is the first 
of a series of environmental attacks we expect this month from 
Republicans. They are also preparing to nullify the President's rules 
to address climate change. They have no solutions and no plan to keep 
our water clean or address climate change. They are wasting valuable 
Senate time on these show votes.

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