I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2531
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act relating to wetlands 
mitigation banking, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 19, 2003
Mr. JONES of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. TAUZIN, Mr. BRADY of Texas, 
Mr. OTTER, Mr. PICKERING, Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi, and Mr. 
BAKER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act relating 
to wetlands mitigation banking, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Wetland 
Restoration Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF POLICIES AND GOALS. 
Section 101(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1251(a)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 
(6); 
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (7) and inserting a semicolon; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(8) it is the national policy to conserve, create, 
and restore wetlands so as to increase the quantity 
and quality of the wetlands resource base of the con-
tiguous United States and to meet the interim goal 
of no overall net loss for the remaining wetlands re-
source base of the contiguous United States while 
taking into account the status and trends of the wet-
lands resource base in particular regions and area 
and to achieve such goals through regulatory means 
that take into account that 75 percent of the wet-
lands in the contiguous United States are privately 
owned and that private property rights should not be 
unreasonably infringed and through nonregulatory 
opportunities involving all levels of government and 
supported by private initiatives; and 
‘‘(9) it is the national policy to foster wetlands 
mitigation banking as a means to mitigate the un-
avoidable loss of wetlands and to do so by providing 
a regulatory framework for the establishment, oper-
ation, and use of mitigation banks, making appro-
priate use of existing, successful programs for miti-
gation banking, and taking into account regional 
variations in wetlands conditions, functions, and val-
ues.’’. 
SEC. 3. USE OF MITIGATION BANKS. 
Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1344) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘(u) USE OF MITIGATION BANKS.—
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS
CONTAINED
IN
FEDERAL 
GUIDANCE.—Except as otherwise provided in this 
subsection, a term used in this subsection shall have 
the meaning given such term in the Federal Guid-
ance. 
‘‘(2) OTHER DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, 
the following definitions apply: 
‘‘(A) 
CHARTER.—The 
term 
‘charter’ 
means a mitigation banking instrument, as de-
scribed in the Federal Guidance. A charter is 
an agreement between an applicant for a char-
ter and the Secretary or a State (in the case of 
a State administering a program under sub-
section (h)(2)(A)) that has been developed in 
consultation with the mitigation bank review 
team.
‘‘(B) FEDERAL
GUIDANCE.—The term 
‘Federal Guidance’ means the Federal Guidance 
for the Establishment, Use and Operation of 
Mitigation Banks (60 Fed. Reg. 58695 (No-
vember 28, 1995)). 
‘‘(C) MAINTENANCE.—With respect to 
wetlands, the term ‘maintenance’ means an ac-
tivity undertaken to ensure viability of a wet-
land or to ensure the accomplishment of a 
project goal after a wetland restoration, en-
hancement, creation, or preservation project has 
been completed, including hydrological manipu-
lation and control of desirable and undesirable 
plant species. 
‘‘(D) MITIGATION BANK.—The term ‘miti-
gation bank’ means a specified wetland resource 
restoration, creation, or enhancement project or 
projects (which may include the preservation of 
appurtenant wetlands, uplands, or open water 
resources to the extent that the wetlands, up-
lands, or open water resources increase the eco-
logical functioning of the mitigation bank) or, 
in exceptional circumstances, a project or
projects consisting solely of preservation of wet-
lands that has been chartered by the Secretary