Section 401 Certification Act
Bill: S.3277 | Sponsor: Sen. Capito, Shelley Moore (R-WV)
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Section 401 Certification Act
The bill provides statutory authority for the rule published on July 13, 2020, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entitled Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule. Under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, an applicant for a federal license or permit to conduct an activity that may result in any discharge into navigable waters must also obtain a certification—or waiver of such certification—from a relevant state, intrastate agency, or Indian tribe that the proposed activity will not violate certain water quality requirements of the state or Indian tribe. The rule revised existing regulations, including by limiting the scope of the certification review process as well as the time frame for a state, interstate agency, or Indian tribe to issue a certification.

To enact the Section 401 Certification Rule, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Section 401 Certification Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 
        (33 U.S.C. 1341) is designed to provide States and authorized 
        Indian Tribes an important tool to help protect the water 
        quality of federally regulated waters within their borders, in 
        collaboration with Federal agencies through the cooperative 
        federalism framework of that Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.);
            (2) in the years preceding the date of enactment of this 
        Act, States have denied water quality certifications under 
        section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
        U.S.C. 1341) for infrastructure projects for reasons other than 
        protecting water quality, such as downstream greenhouse gas 
        emissions;
            (3) natural gas pipelines, coal production, and electric 
        transmissions lines are vital to ensuring that the people of 
        the United States have affordable access to energy;
            (4) in October 2021, the Energy Information Administration 
        projected that nearly half of households in the United States 
        that heat primarily with natural gas will spend, on average, 30 
        percent more to heat those households as compared to the 
        previous winter;
            (5) fuel scarcity and a lack of sufficient infrastructure 
        to transport natural gas contribute to higher energy prices; 
        and
            (6) other infrastructure projects, such as road 
        construction to support interstate commerce, are in the 
        national interest and warrant regulatory certainty under 
        section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
        U.S.C. 1341).

SEC. 3. ENACTMENT OF THE SECTION 401 CERTIFICATION RULE.

    The final rule of the Environmental Protection Agency entitled 
``Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule'' (85 Fed. Reg. 42210 
(July 13, 2020)) is enacted into law.
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