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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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WHEREAS, Individual state governments have traditionally |
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held jurisdiction over intrastate water resources, but S. 787, |
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111th Cong. (2009), and H.R. 5088, 111th Cong. (2010), would expand |
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the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, widely known as the Clean |
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Water Act, to extend federal jurisdiction from "navigable waters of |
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the United States" to "waters of the United States," defined to |
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include "all other waters, such as intrastate lakes, rivers, |
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streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, |
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wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or |
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natural ponds"; and |
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WHEREAS, Not only would such changes involve the federal |
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government in inefficient and cumbersome efforts to regulate highly |
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localized water resources, such as abandoned pits and ponds, but |
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this definition also grants the United States Environmental |
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Protection Agency broad and vague flexibility to interpret federal |
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jurisdiction expansively, which the agency has attempted to do |
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under the current law and with which the United States Supreme Court |
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has disagreed; in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. |
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United States Army Corps of Engineers (2001) and Rapanos v. United |
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States (2006), the supreme court held that the Clean Water Act was |
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not intended to grant federal authority over intrastate waters and |
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that these waters were not subject to regulation under the |
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Interstate Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution; and |
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WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment of the United States |
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Constitution preserves powers not delegated to the federal |
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government for the states, establishing federalism and state |
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sovereignty as integral founding principles of American |
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government; recent proposals by Congress to amend the Clean Water |
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Act represent a clear attempt to diminish the sovereignty of states |
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by depriving them of their jurisdiction over intrastate waters and |
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placing all water resources under the control of the federal |
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government; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas |
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hereby express its opposition to any attempt by the federal |
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government to diminish the jurisdiction of individual states over |
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their intrastate water resources; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
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copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
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the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of |
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Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the |
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members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that |
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this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a |
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memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |