Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. AGUILAR. Madam Speaker, this is a final amendment to the bill which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

This motion is simple. It requires the Army Corps and the EPA to ensure that important surface waters and wetlands are protected during the new rulemaking process this bill starts.

This motion requires that the quality of public water supplies be protected. Around the country, we have seen drinking water sources contaminated, like the algal bloom in Lake Erie that forced Toledo, Ohio, to use bottled water.

In California, the historic drought has reduced many surface waters to stagnant pools of water. Seven million Californians rely on these streams for their drinking water. We need to make sure these drinking water sources are protected to keep families and communities healthy.

The drought in California has reached emergency levels, and this motion ensures that waters and wetlands that help mitigate the drought in the West are protected. These waters need protection under this rule because, if they are contaminated, then we have few other options to ensure communities in southern California have access to water sources.

California is implementing water use restrictions to deal with the drought, but it doesn't make sense to take these steps if we don't make sure the wetlands and waters that recharge them are protected.

Finally, this motion guarantees that water used for agriculture, including for irrigation, are safeguarded. California's agriculture industry depends on clean water, and this motion preserves the exemptions agriculture already gets under regulations.

In short, this is a commonsense amendment to the bill to guarantee protections for water used for the public's drinking supply, for lessening the impact of the drought in California and the West, and for agriculture.

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