Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
League of Conservation Voters
Clean Water.
For more than thirty years, the Clean Water Act has protected the nation’s lakes, rivers, streams
and wetlands from unregulated pollution, filling and destruction. However, since a Supreme Court
ruling in 2001, polluters have argued that the law no longer applies to many small bodies of water around the country. In 2003, the Bush administration issued a directive requiring EPA staff to get permission from headquarters before protecting “isolated” water bodies like vernal pools, prairie potholes, playa lakes and bogs. In reality, these waters provide critical wildlife habitat, store flood water and protect drinking water supplies. During House consideration of H.R. 5386, the Interior-Environment Appropriations bill, Representatives
James Oberstar (D-MN), Jim Leach (R-IA) and John Dingell (D-MI) introduced an amendment that would force the EPA to rescind its directive and reaffirm a broad application of Clean Water Act protections. House Amendment 854 was approved.League of Private Property Voters
OVER-REGULATE WETLANDS.
HR 5386: Fiscal 2007 Interior- Environment Appropriations - Intrastate Bodies of Water- Oberstar, D-Minn., amendment that would bar the use of funds in the bill to enforce current EPA policy that isolated, intrastate bodies of water are not necessarily subject to environmental regulations under the Clean Water Act.Republicans for Environmental Protection
Prohibits EPA funds from being used to implement or enforce a 2003 policy directive that eliminate Clean Water Act protections.
An amendment to the FY 07 Interior Appropriations bill offered by Reps. James Oberstar (D-MN) and James Leach (R-IA) to prohibit EPA funds from being used to implement or enforce a 2003 policy directive that effectively eliminated Clean Water Act protections for many small streams, wetlands, ponds and there waters around the country.