Volume 146, No. 79 covering the 2nd Session of the 106th Congress (1999 - 2000) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY IS OUT OF CONTROL” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H4914-H4915 on June 21, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY IS OUT OF CONTROL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to call attention to the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency is absolutely out of control. They have adopted a policy of any means is justified by its political ends. They seem absolutely determined to destroy the family farm as we know it today. They have completely abandoned sound science, or any science, for that matter. They pursue the idea that any regulation is a good regulation as long as it causes a lot of chaos and economic disruption.
Earlier this year, EPA attempted to regulate as a point source silviculture in this country. They have pretty well been falled by that effort. But now they are attempting, in a rather secretive way, to try to regulate aquaculture, another very important agricultural pursuit in this country.
They have absolutely no scientific data indicating that there is a problem with pollution with aquaculture industry. After all, these farmers raise fish, they do not want their produce growing in polluted water.
The Environmental Protection Agency, as part of their plan to implement their regulatory process based on the economic success of their producers, they have this form that they are asking our aquaculture producers to fill out. And if they do not fill it out, there will be a penalty and they will be in violation of a Federal law and there is a severe threat.
One of the questions they ask, and they do not ask any questions in this form, not one, about water quality or how they treat your water. What they do ask, Mr. Speaker, is, If this company borrows money to finance capital improvements, such as waste water treatment equipment, what interest rates would they pay? In the event that this company does not borrow money to finance capital improvements, what equity rate would it use? When you finance capital improvements, what is the approximate mix of debt and equity? What are your revenues from aquaculture? The revenue from other agriculture activities that are co-
located with aquaculture? What are other farm facility revenues? Do you get Government payments and how much are those Government payments? Is there other non-farm income? What are the total revenues? And the list goes on and on, Mr. Speaker.
This is not a questionnaire to help improve the water quality of this country or the areas where aquaculture is located. This is an attempt to destroy an industry, one more attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency to destroy agriculture in this country as we know it.
It is time for it to stop. Enough is enough.
The Environmental Protection Agency should be the premier scientific agency of this Nation. And yet, it has turned itself into nothing more than a political yardage to pursue perfectly legitimate and harmless industries.
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