Providing for Congressional Disapproval of a Rule Submitted by the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Proctection Agency

Floor Speech

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Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the CRA, Congressional Review Act amendment on the waters of the United States, of my colleague from Iowa. West Virginia is no stranger to the crushing consequences of harmful regulations. Our unemployment rate is the largest in the Nation. Layoff notices keep coming and declining revenues from coal severance taxes are eroding our State's budget. I read an article earlier today saying that this far into the fiscal year in the State of West Virginia we have a deficit of $91 million.

The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers waters of the United States rule, known as the WOTUS rule, is just the latest example of a regulatory environment that threatens to put West Virginians and other Americans out of business. Everyone can agree--and the Senator from Texas just talked about this and I know the Senator from Iowa has talked about it frequently--that we must protect our drinking water resources, and we also must protect our precious natural resources, but a rule that subjects puddles and ditches to
regulations just goes too far. The EPA's unprecedented expansion of Federal authority has very serious consequences, both in the State I represent, West Virginia, and throughout the rest of the country.

In my State of West Virginia, the steep mountainous terrain means that the EPA would have oversight over any land located in the valley or low-lying area. If you have been to West Virginia, you know you are either on a mountain or in a valley in a low-lying area. There is very little flat land.

The West Virginia Coal Association pointed out that the WOTUS rule would trigger ``an alphabet soup of statutes, regulatory programs and federal regulatory agencies'' involved in traditionally nonregulated activities. Something as simple as digging a ditch on a farm or building a home on privately owned property could be under the purview of the EPA and a failure to comply with that rule could result in fines as high as $37,500 a day.

A county commissioner from Monongalia County recently wrote to my office expressing concerns that this WOTUS rule would impede the county's attempt to create developable tracks of land needed to attract large employers in West Virginia.

I will remind everyone that developable land in a State like mine is very difficult to create because it is not natural and it would create a lot of those low-lying areas, ditches, and puddles that this regulation goes way beyond to regulate.

A small business owner in Scott Depot, WV, shared her concern that small businesses were not adequately considered in the WOTUS rule. She said:

Government regulations, like the proposed rule, are complicated, expensive to navigate, and a real obstacle to my growing business. This change, and its ridiculous overreach and restrictions could decrease land value and hinder my ability to expand, develop and use my own private land.

We talk a lot about creating jobs in this country. This is a quote from a small business owner who is concerned about her ability to control her own destiny with her own small business on her own privately owned land. I think this is the reason that 31 States, including West Virginia, are suing to overturn this misguided rule, and two courts have already found it likely illegal.

Rather than incorporating thoughts from Congress and concerned Americans, this misguided rule doubles down on overreach and threatens to impede small businesses, agriculture, manufacturing, coal, natural gas production, and many other vital sectors of the economy as the Senator from Texas just talked about.

The decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the implementation of the WOTUS rule nationwide confirms that WOTUS was the wrong approach to protecting our water resources and reinforces the need to rein in this administration's unprecedented and overreaching regulations.

Along with colleagues on both sides of the aisle--just this afternoon at 2:30 p.m.--I proudly supported Senator Barrasso's Federal Water Quality Protection Act, which would have directed the EPA and the Corps of Engineers to withdraw this rule, go back to the drawing board, and issue an alternative approach that is crafted in consultation with State and local governments and small businesses.

The bill we voted on earlier today received bipartisan support from 57 Senators but only partisan opposition. Both Republicans and Democrats supported moving forward on the Federal Water Quality Protection Act because we wanted to offer a real solution that would bring clarity and common sense to the protection of our Nation's waters.

This legislation would have provided certainty to farmers, manufacturers, energy producers, State and local governments, and anyone seeking to do virtually anything on private land. Unfortunately, 41 Democrats stopped a bipartisan majority from considering this bill. We must now consider other options to block the misguided WOTUS regulation issued by the EPA and Corps of Engineers.

I am glad we will have the opportunity to vote on a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval offered by the Senator from Iowa. This resolution would protect hard-working West Virginia families, small businesses, energy producers, and others across the country who would be unfairly burdened by this onerous and deeply flawed WOTUS rule. The WOTUS rule would lead to a massive expansion, again, of costly permitting requirements and hinder our already struggling economy, an outcome West Virginia and the Nation simply cannot afford.

I urge my colleagues to join with me and the Senator from Iowa, who is leading the charge in such an admiral way in supporting this important effort to block the harmful WOTUS rule.

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