Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the Goodlatte amendment. The Goodlatte amendment removes the federal backstops which ensure that states meet their responsibilities under the Clean Water Act to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay is a critical part of Virginia and we are already starting to see the results of successful Bay cleanup efforts. Virginia oysters are booming--last year the harvest was up 25% and passed the 500,000 bushel-mark. That is why Virginia is committed to working with EPA and other Bay states to clean up the Chesapeake. There have been hundreds of millions of dollars invested in this effort and federal backstops play an important role to ensure that all states do their share.

But this amendment puts our investments and progress at serious risk. This amendment suggests that it would preserve the rights of the states to write their own water quality plans. But the Commonwealth of Virginia already wrote its own water quality plan and the Total Maximum Daily Load submission was accepted by EPA. So in Virginia, this is simply not a problem. So to me, this amendment looks like an answer in search of a problem. A problem we do not have in Virginia.

But what this amendment does do is this. It creates a BIG problem for Virginia because it would allow upstream states off the hook. It would allow upstream states to stop their cleanup with no consequences. In Virginia, we would feel--and see--real consequences. We could see increases in dirty water flowing downstream, reversing all of our hard work.

If upstream states stop their cleanups, Virginia would need to double the work and more--and we would still not have a clean Bay. The fact is that this amendment would absolutely undermine the cleanup efforts already underway. It puts at risk future environmental and economic benefits that Virginia would accrue with a cleaner, healthier bay such as more abundant seafood, tourism, recreation, and improved quality of life. As the state at the bottom of the bay watershed, Virginia's success in restoring our part of the Bay is dependent upon what the other states do, or don't do.

This amendment would ensure that other states would write the future of Virginia's waters and the future of our Bay. That is why I am working with my colleagues Chris Van Hollen and Bobby Scott to raise awareness of the dangers of this amendment.

I urge my colleagues to vote NO. It takes away our clean water future and our clean water investments. This amendment is bad for Virginia and bad for the future health of the Chesapeake Bay.

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