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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1089

To amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990

to provide that a single Federal agency shall be responsible for making

technical determinations with respect to wetland or converted wetland

on agricultural lands.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 24, 1993

Mr. BUNNING (for himself, Mr. EMERSON, Mr. PENNY, Mr. HANSE, Mr.

HERGER, Mr. SARPALIUS, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. STUMP, Mrs.

VUCANOVICH, Mr. COMBEST, Mr. CRANE, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. POMBO,

and Mr. INHOFE) introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly

to the Committees on Agriculture and Public Works and Transportation

A BILL

To amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade

Act of 1990 to provide that a single Federal agency

shall be responsible for making technical determinations

with respect to wetland or converted wetland on agricultural lands.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wetlands Simplifica5 tion Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

3 (1) technical determinations with respect to

4 wetland or converted wetland on agricultural lands

5 (including the identification of wetlands and the de6 velopment of wetland restoration and mitigation

7 plans) are currently made by—

8 (A) the Soil Conservation Service, in con9 sultation with the United States Fish and Wild10 life Service, to carry out subtitle C of title XII

11 of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C.

12 3821 et seq.); and

13 (B) the Secretary of the Army, acting

14 through the Chief of Engineers, to carry out

15 section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution

16 Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344);

17 (2) the system of separate determinations made

18 under such Acts has led to unnecessarily cum19 bersome and slow decisionmaking and to a lack of

20 consistency and unpredictable results in determina21 tions;

22 (3) the lack of consistency places substantial

23 burdens on private property owners that could be al24 leviated if responsibility for making the determina25 tions was carried out by one agency; and
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1 (4) the Soil Conservation Service has a long

2 history of working with agricultural producers to

3 protect soil and water resources, has considerable

4 soils expertise, and has field personnel in almost

5 every county of the United States.

6 (b) PURPOSES.—The purpose of this Act is to—

7 (1) provide that a single Federal agency shall

8 be responsible for making technical determinations

9 on agricultural lands with respect to wetland or con10 verted wetland (including the identification of wet11 land and the development of wetland restoration and

12 mitigation plans), in order to reduce confusion

13 among agricultural producers; and

14 (2) provide that the Soil Conservation Service,

15 in consultation with the United States Fish and

16 Wildlife Service, shall be the Federal agency respon17 sible for all such technical determinations concerning

18 wetland and converted wetland on agricultural lands.

19 SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE WITH WETLAND CONSERVATION RE20 QUIREMENTS.

21 Section 1222(j) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16

22 U.S.C. 3822(j)) is amended by adding at the end the fol23 lowing new paragraph:

24 ‘‘(4) EFFECT OF DETERMINATIONS.—
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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any

2 other provision of law, a technical determina3 tion made under this section with respect to

4 wetland or converted wetland on agricultural

5 lands (including the identification of wetland

6 under paragraph (1) and the development of a

7 wetland restoration or mitigation plan devel8 oped under paragraph (1)) shall be used in the

9 administration of section 404 of the Federal

10 Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344).

11 ‘‘(B) CONSISTENCY.—Any area of agricul12 tural land or any activities related to the land

13 determined to be exempt from the requirements

14 of this subtitle shall also be exempt from the re15 quirements of section 404 of the Federal Water

16 Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344) so long

17 as those lands are used as agricultural lands.

18 ‘‘(C) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this

19 paragraph, the term ‘agricultural lands’ means

20 cropland, pastureland, native pasture, range21 land, orchards, vineyards, nonindustrial forest

22 land, and any other land used to produce or

23 support the production of an annual or peren24 nial crop of a commodity, aquaculture product,

25 nursery product, or livestock.’’.
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