Feingold Introduces Legislation to Protect Wetlands Aims to Restore the Intent of the Clean Water Act of 1972 February 27, 2003 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) was joined today by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Representatives James L. Oberstar (D-MN) and John D. Dingell (D-MI) in introducing the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003. They were joined at a press conference by members of the environmental community. The legislation will provide federal protection for isolated wetlands, which can now be destroyed following a January 2001 Supreme Court decision. This legislation will restore the original intent of the Clean Water Act of 1972. "The 2001 Supreme Court decision, in effect, removed much of the federal clean water act protection for wetlands in Wisconsin and across the country," Feingold said. "Congress needs to re-establish the common understanding of the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction to protect all waters of the U.S. -- the understanding that Congress had when it adopted the Act in 1972," The bill aims to protect isolated wetlands, which play an important role by absorbing flood-waters, preventing pollution from reaching our rivers and streams, and providing crucial habitat for most of the nation's ducks and other waterfowl, as well as hundreds of other bird, fish, shellfish and amphibian species. Loss of these waters would have a devastating effect on our environment. In addition, by narrowing the water and wetland areas subject to federal regulation, the Supreme Court decision also shifted more of the economic burden for regulating wetlands to state and local governments. The proposed legislation does three things: • It adopts a statutory definition of "waters of the United States" based on a longstanding definition of waters in the Corps of Engineers' regulations. • It deletes the term "navigable" from the Clean Water Act to clarify that Congress's primary concern in 1972 was to protect the nation's waters from pollution, rather than just to sustain the navigability of waterways, and to reinforce that original intent. • It includes a set of findings that explain the factual basis for Congress to assert its constitutional authority over waters and wetlands, including those that are called isolated, on all relevant constitutional grounds, including the Commerce Clause, the Property Clause, the Treaty Clause, and the Necessary and Proper Clause.

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