Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 1732, a bill which blocks efforts to clarify the Clean Water Act before agencies even produce a final rule.

There is consensus that the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act is confusing and has frustrated many in the regulated community. Two Supreme Court decisions and guidance dating from the Bush Administration has caused years of uncertainty and difficulty in the permitting process. Clarifying responsibilities under the Clean Water Act will ease those frustrations while protecting critical drinking water for our constituents.

The Administration has undertaken a comprehensive review process to solicit comment from all the stakeholders to rewrite the rules. While today's bill argues that the Army Corps and EPA have made insufficient effort to obtain input from the regulated community, there have been over 400 public meetings and hundreds of thousands of public comments. The public comment period lasted 207 days.

This bill would throw out that whole process and force the Administration to start from scratch, delaying regulatory certainty and clean water protections indefinitely. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this bill and evaluate the merits of the final rule when it is released in a few weeks.

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