Representative Tom McClintock (CA-04) issued the following statement in response to the introduction of legislation that will provide for a federal government takeover of all bodies of water in the United States.
The legislation, H.R. 5088 by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN), seeks to increase the federal government’s jurisdiction over water from “navigable” waterways, to include all inland waters, including irrigation canals and small ponds.
“At a time when rural America is already under attack from impossibly complicated and costly regulations and aggressive environmental activists, the last thing we need is an expansion of government authority. The Democrat Majority is trying to have it both ways, they claim to be concerned about job loss in our weakened economy at the same time they introduce a bill that will kill jobs and make it more expensive for Americans to do business. This expansion of the Clean Water Act isn’t about cleaner water, it’s a political giveaway to the environmental left in an attempt to stomp the last bit of life from rural Americans already struggling to survive within the existing regulatory and permitting framework.”
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