Providing for Congressional Disapproval of A Rule Submitted By the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency--Veto Message From the President of the United States (H. Doc. No.

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. We are not talking about the Clean Water Act. We are talking about the waters of the United States of America, Mr. Speaker, and definitionally what has happened here is the administration didn't like what was in the rule and the regulations, and it has changed the definition.

They didn't like it, so they changed the definition such that under this rule, nearly every single property across the entire United States that is subject to one drop of rain is now open to enforcement by the Federal Government--not your State government, and not your local government--the Federal Government coming in to tell you that you are a polluter and that you are misusing your land because a drop of rain landed on it.

People say: Oh, you don't really mean a drop of rain.

Yes, I do mean a drop of rain. You see, Mr. Speaker, it is the EPA that will determine the definition on a case-by-case basis arbitrarily, which is what they want.

That is why it is important that we override the President's veto.

You see, Mr. Speaker, he didn't veto on behalf of the United States of America. The United States of America sent the people to this Chamber to vote on what they wanted, and we passed the Congressional Review Act to say that we don't want the definition changed.

The President doesn't like that.

Half of the bureaucrats who work in Washington, D.C., probably don't even have a yard. They probably live in a high-rise. They don't even have grass, but yet they are going to tell you how you are going to live your life and how you are going to use your land based on the Federal Government's rule.

Threats of imprisonment under ambiguous terminology and threats of financial ruin is what belies this bill and the American people if we allow this to go.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption. We must override the President's veto. We must stand for the American people and individual property rights which are the bedrock and the foundation of the United States of America.

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