OPPOSITION TO GOODLATTE AMENDMENT TO DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2016

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment offered by my colleague that would, in essence, prohibit the EPA from spending any funds to ensure that states fulfill their obligations under the Clean Water Act to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. If passed into law, this amendment would endanger the progress we have made in restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and would put in jeopardy not only the Chesapeake Bay itself, but also critical economic contributions that the Bay provides.

When I was in the Virginia House of Delegates, I was part of a joint Virginia-Maryland legislative task force that first recommended the creation of a multi-state commission to address Bay issues. In our report filed in 1980, we recommended ``the need for improved coordination of Bay-wide management to meet the long-term needs of the people of both Maryland and Virginia'' and found that this was not an issue that Maryland and Virginia alone could solve.

Cleaning up the Bay required the cooperation of all states in the watershed. In 1983, Chesapeake Bay Watershed states signed the first Chesapeake Bay agreement to coordinate their efforts on this issue, and in 2010 the EPA set pollution limits to reduce pollution, nutrients, and sediment flowing into the Bay.

As a result of these efforts, the quality of the Chesapeake Bay has been significantly improved and states continue to invest millions of dollars in their Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint Plans. Just yesterday, a unanimous decision was issued by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the authority of the EPA under the Clean Water Act to set limits on pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. In the decision, the Court wrote that cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay ``will require sacrifice ..... but that is a consequence of the tremendous effort it will take to restore health to the bay.''

I agree with the Court's assessment: cleaning up the Bay will take tremendous efforts and coordination between all six states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the District of Columbia, and participating states should have the certainty that other states can be trusted to fulfill their obligations to help clean up the Bay.

I believe that instead of offering amendments to undermine these efforts, we should be investing even more resources to ensure that they are successful. I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment.