[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRATULATING KENTUCKY'S GOVERNOR-ELECT AND ADDRESSING THE WATERS OF 
                      THE UNITED STATES REGULATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me begin this morning by 
congratulating Kentucky's Governor-elect and the entire Republican 
ticket on a big win at home last night. I remember when the Republican 
nomination was hardly worth having in Kentucky. We used to have to beg 
people to run. So it says something when we see spirited competition 
for it, which we had in the primary back in May.
  The Governor-elect and I certainly are no strangers to spirited 
competition, but we are also conservative Kentuckians happy to see some 
change coming to Frankfort.
  Yesterday's election was a statement about where the people of my 
State want to see us headed, and it is not down the road of government 
control and Big Labor. They want fresh ideas, growth, innovation, 
opportunity, and greater control over their lives and destinies. They 
want a change in direction. Here is something they certainly don't 
want: more of this administration's top-down, Washington-knows-best 
approach to everything from health care to how best to use our natural 
resources.
  Washington overreach is just what I will discuss further right now. 
The administration's so-called waters of the United States regulation 
would grant Federal bureaucrats domination over nearly every piece of 
land that has ever touched a pothole, ditch or puddle at some point. It 
would force the Americans who live there to ask Federal bureaucrats for 
permission to do just about anything on their own property. We are not 
talking about just a few acres falling under bureaucratic control here 
and there. According to analysis by the American Farm Bureau, we are 
talking about centralized Federal control extending to nearly 92 
percent of Wisconsin, 95 percent of California, 98 percent of New York, 
99 percent of Pennsylvania, and, if you can believe this, 100 percent 
of Virginia--the entire State. This isn't some clean water regulation. 
It is an unprecedented Federal power grab that clumsily and poorly 
pretends to masquerade as one.
  It is obvious why waters of the United States would be a leftwinger's 
dream. It is equally obvious why Democratic leaders would want to 
pretend this rule is about clean water rather than admit what it is 
really about, because the true purpose and scope of this regulation is 
basically indefensible. So 31 States have already filed suit against 
it, 2 Federal courts have already ruled that it is likely illegal, and 
1 court found that the rule was so flawed that it had to be the result 
of ``a process that is inexplicable, arbitrary, and devoid of a 
reasoned process.'' That is why we considered the bipartisan Federal 
Water Quality Protection Act yesterday.
  The legislation is bipartisan, and it is simple. It says that the 
EPA's resources should be used to actually protect the lakes and rivers 
we all cherish rather than for the administration to launch arbitrary 
ideological attacks on middle-class homeowners and family farms. This 
bipartisan legislation would have required America's clean water rules 
to be based on the kind of scientific, collaborative process the 
American people expect, not some arbitrary or inflexible process that 
is devoid of reason such as we had with WOTUS but a balanced process 
that actually takes the views of those it affects into serious 
consideration.
  I thank the Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Barrasso, for his impressive 
work on the bill. A bipartisan majority of the Senate voted to support 
it, but most Democrats chose an ideological power grab over sensible 
clean water rules yesterday. To many Kentuckians, this regulation feels 
a lot like the latest in a sustained Obama administration regulatory 
assault on their families.
  The Senate is going to pursue another avenue today to protect the 
middle class from this unfair regulatory attack. Our colleague from 
Iowa, Senator Ernst, has introduced a measure that would allow Congress 
to move forward despite the Democratic filibuster. It would overturn 
the regulation in its entirety. A majority of the Senate voted to 
support this bill just yesterday. We will vote on final passage later 
today. And because this measure cannot be filibustered, we expect it to 
pass.
  I ask my colleagues who voted against bipartisan commonsense clean 
water legislation yesterday to think differently today. Work with us to 
protect the middle class instead of defending ``inexplicable, 
arbitrary'' regulation that is probably illegal and almost certainly 
violates the Clean Water Act.

                          ____________________