HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

703

1995 T67.14

T67.12 ORDER OF BUSINESS—

CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS—

H.R. 961

On motion of Mr. SHUSTER, by

unanimous consent,

Ordered, That during the further consideration of the bill (H.R. 961) to

amend the Federal Water Pollution

Control Act, in the Committee of the

Whole House on the state of the Union,

the time for debate on the Boehlert

substitute amendment to title VIII,

and all amendments thereto, be limited

to one hour; and the time for debate on

the Gilchrest amendment to delete

wetland delineation and wetland classification provisions, and all amendments thereto, be limited to thirty

minutes.

T67.13 CLEAN WATER AMENDMENTS

The SPEAKER pro tempore, Mr.

BARRETT, pursuant to House Resolution 140 and rule XXIII, declared the

House resolved into the Committee of

the Whole House on the state of the

Union for the further consideration of

the bill (H.R. 961) to amend the Federal

Water Pollution Control Act.

Mr. MCINNIS, Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, resumed the

chair; and after some time spent therein,

T67.14 RECORDED VOTE

A recorded vote by electronic device

was ordered in the Committee of the

Whole on the following amendment

submitted by Mr. BOEHLERT:

Strike title VIII of the bill (page 239, line

3, through page 322, line 22) and insert the

following:

TITLE VIII—WETLANDS CONSERVATION

AND MANAGEMENT

SEC. 801. SHORT TITLE.

This title may be cited as the ‘‘Wetlands

and Watershed Management Act of 1995’’.

SEC. 802. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds and declares

the following:

(1) Wetlands perform a number of valuable

functions needed to restore and maintain the

chemical, physical, and biological integrity

of the Nation’s waters, including—

(A) reducing pollutants (including nutrients, sediment, and toxics) from nonpoint

and point sources;

(B) storing, conveying, and purifying flood

and storm waters;

(C) reducing both bank erosion and wave

and storm damage to adjacent lands and

trapping sediment from upland sources;

(D) providing habitat and food sources for

a broad range of commercial and recreational fish, shellfish, and migratory wildlife species (including waterfowl and endangered species); and

(E) providing a broad range of recreational

values for canoeing, boating, birding, and nature study and observation.

(2) Original wetlands in the contiguous

United States have been reduced by an estimated 50 percent and continue to disappear

at a rate of 200,000 to 300,000 acres a year.

Many of these original wetlands have also

been altered or partially degraded, reducing

their ecological value.

(3) Wetlands are highly sensitive to

changes in water regimes and are, therefore,

susceptible to degradation by fills, drainage,

grading, water extractions, and other activities within their watersheds which affect the

quantity, quality, and flow of surface and

ground waters. Protection and management

of wetlands, therefore, should be integrated

with management of water systems on a watershed basis. A watershed protection and

management perspective is also needed to

understand and reverse the gradual, continued destruction of wetlands that occurs due

to cumulative impacts.

(4) Wetlands constitute an estimated 5 percent of the Nation’s surface area. Because

much of this land is in private ownership

wetlands protection and management strategies must take into consideration private

property rights and the need for economic

development and growth. This can be best

accomplished in the context of a cooperative

and coordinated Federal, State, and local

strategy for data gathering, planning, management, and restoration with an emphasis

on advance planning of wetlands in watershed contexts.

(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act

are—

(1) to help create a coordinated national

wetland management effort with efficient

use of scarce Federal, State, and local financial and manpower resources to protect wetland functions and values and reduce natural

hazard losses;

(2) to help reverse the trend of wetland loss

in a fair, efficient, and cost-effective manner;

(3) to reduce inconsistencies and duplication in Federal, State, and local wetland

management efforts and encourage integrated permitting at the Federal, State, and

local levels;

(4) to increase technical assistance, cooperative training, and educational opportunities

for States, local governments, and private

landowners;

(5) to help integrate wetland protection

and management with other water resource

management programs on a watershed basis

such as flood control, storm water management, allocation of water supply, protection

of fish and wildlife, and point and nonpoint

source pollution control;

(6) to increase regionalization of wetland

delineation and management policies within

a framework of national policies through advance planning of wetland areas, programmatic general permits and other approaches and the tailoring of policies to ecosystem and land use needs to reflect significant watershed variance in wetland resources;

(7) to address the cumulative loss of wetland resources;

(8) to increase the certainty and predictability of planning and regulatory policies

for private landowners;

(9) to help achieve no overall net loss and

net gain of the remaining wetland base of

the United States through watershed-based

restoration strategies involving all levels of

government;

(10) to restore and create wetlands in order

to increase the quality and quantity of the

wetland resources and by so doing to restore

and maintain the quality and quantity of the

waters of the United States; and

(11) to provide mechanisms for joint State,

Federal, and local development and testing

of approaches to better protect wetland resources such as mitigation banking.

SEC. 803. STATE, LOCAL, AND LANDOWNER TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATIVE TRAINING.

(a) STATE AND LOCAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—Upon request, the Administrator or

the Secretary of the Army, as appropriate,

shall provide technical assistance to State

and local governments in the development

and implementation of State and local government permitting programs under sections

404(e) and 404(h) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, State wetland conservation

plans under section 805, and regional or local

wetland management plans under section

805.

(b) COOPERATIVE TRAINING.—The Administrator and the Secretary, in cooperation

with the Coordinating Committee established pursuant to section 804, shall conduct

training courses for States and local governments involving wetland delineation, utilization of wetlands in nonpoint pollution control, wetland and stream restoration, wetland planning, wetland evaluation, mitigation banking, and other subjects deemed appropriate by the Administrator or Secretary.

(c) PRIVATE LANDOWNER TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Administrator and Secretary

shall, in cooperation with the Coordination

Committee, and appropriate Federal agencies develop and provide to private landowners guidebooks, pamphlets, or other materials and technical assistance to help them

in identifying and evaluating wetlands, developing integrated wetland management

plans for their lands consistent with the

goals of this Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, and restoring wetlands.

SEC. 804. FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days

after the date of the enactment of this Act,

the Administrator shall establish a Federal,

State, and Local Government Wetlands Coordinating Committee (hereinafter in this

section referred to as the ‘‘Committee’’).

(b) FUNCTIONS.—The Committee shall—

(1) help coordinate Federal, State, and

local wetland planning, regulatory, and restoration programs on an ongoing basis to reduce duplication, resolve potential conflicts,

and efficiently allocate manpower and resources at all levels of government;

(2) provide comments to the Secretary of

the Army or Administrator in adopting regulatory, policy, program, or technical guidance affecting wetland systems;

(3) help develop and field test, national

policies prior to implementation such as

wetland, delineation, classification of wetlands, methods for sequencing wetland mitigation responses, the utilization of mitigation banks;

(4) help develop and carry out joint technical assistance and cooperative training

programs as provided in section 803;

(5) help develop criteria and implementation strategies for facilitating State conservation plans and strategies, local and regional wetland planning, wetland restoration

and creation, and State and local permitting

programs pursuant to section 404(e) or 404(g)

of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act;

and

(6) help develop a national strategy for the

restoration of wetland ecosystems pursuant

to section 6 of this Act.

(c) MEMBERSHIP.—The Committee shall be

composed of 18 members as follows:

(1) The Administrator or the designee of

the Administrator.

(2) The Secretary or the designee of the

Secretary.

(3) The Director of the United States Fish

and Wildlife Service or the designee of the

Director.

(4) The Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service or the designee of the

Chief.

(5) The Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere or the designee of the Under Secretary.

(6) One individual appointed by the Administrator who will represent the National

Governor’s Association.

(7) One individual appointed by the Administrator who will represent the National Association of Counties.

(8) One individual appointed by the Administrator who will represent the National

League of Cities.