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Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Date: July 13, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Environment

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Chair, I rise today to voice my strong opposition to H.R. 2018, the so-called ``Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act.'' This bill is neither cooperative nor does it promote clean water.

The American people expect and deserve protection from dirty air, tainted food, and polluted water. The problem with relinquishing federal authority over environmental regulations is that these threats don't stop at state borders. The EPA recently concluded an air pollution analysis demonstrating the upwind-downwind linkages between states. That study demonstrated that my home state of Illinois receives air pollution from more than 10 states as a result of wind patterns. Illinois shares water sources, including Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, with 11 states. Much like with air, a patchwork of regulations will do nothing to ensure my constituents have access to clean water.

H.R. 2018 removes any federal baseline for what constitutes a clean water program and leaves the process entirely under state control. It is a de facto repeal of the Clean Water Act.

We know what will happen without reasonable oversight of our nation's water sources because we have seen it before. Prior to the 1972 Clean Water Act, American rivers and streams were treated like sewers and chemical pollution was so rampant that rivers caught fire. This bill would hand our waterways and drinking water sources back to corporate polluters.

Promoters of corporate pollution regularly suggest that turning a blind eye to the destruction of our waterways, air supply, and food sources is in the economic best-interest of the country. Even if this were true, it would ignore the health and welfare of the American people. But it is not true. The Office of Management and Budget has demonstrated that the cost of implementing EPA rules over the last decade have cost as much as $29 billion, but the economic benefits of those regulations have reaped between $82 billion and $552 billion. The facts don't lie: EPA regulations save lives and stimulate economic growth.

I urge my colleagues to join me in opposition to H.R. 2018, a bill that offers no tangible benefits and a litany of irreversible costs.

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