14 



sole responsibility for delineating wetlands on agricultural lands 

 for all agricultural programs. I will be happy to answer any ques- 

 tions that you have about the memorandum or any of these other 

 administration positions at the end of our testimony, as will the 

 other representatives from the administration. 



With regard to the water quality protection policies and the 

 pieces of legislation that you are considering today, there is in fact 

 a bewildering array of proposals, timeframes, expectations, and 

 standards on the table for us to discuss. I do not see much utility 

 in trying to work our way through each of these proposals, as com- 

 plicated as they are. What I would prefer to do is to address some 

 of the principles that we see emerging from these proposals, prin- 

 ciples that are also evident in the administration's proposal. 



In particular, I believe for any program designed to address agri- 

 cultural water quality protection needs, in order for that program 

 to be successful, at a minimum it must include the following: First, 

 a successful program would provide clear and direct guidance to 

 the States and to the people implementing and affected by the pro- 

 gram. Second, the program should give the States the option to 

 work on a watershed basis, addressing the watersheds they believe 

 to be the most important, and targeting their efforts in these wa- 

 tersheds to only those situations on the land causing real water 

 quality problems. Third, the State should be working with all the 

 stakeholders at the State and local level as they delineate their 

 problems, define their solutions, and measure success. Fourth, the 

 solutions adopted at the field level should be site-specific and they 

 should reflect the best science we have available to us today. And 

 fifth, adequate time must be provided for the program to work, and 

 the program should be flexible to accommodate the needs at the 

 State and local level. 



I believe all of these elements are present in the administration's 

 position and many of them can be discerned in many of the legisla- 

 tive proposals before you today. The details, of course, are critical 

 and none of us should have any delusions about the ease with 

 which these details can be worked out. But a framework does exist, 

 in our opinion, that can pull all the necessary elements together. 



In closing, Mr. Chairman, I would like to reiterate that there is 

 a great deal of work to be done to address this country's objective 

 for water quality and wetlands protection. But considerable 

 progress has been made; we could go into a lot of details about 

 what has actually occurred and the data that is there. We can rec- 

 ognize that progress is there and then, perhaps most importantly, 

 that there is considerable agreement on the policies and ap- 

 proaches that we should take to address these remaining problems. 

 The administration looks forward to working with you and the 

 other members of your subcommittee and Congress in the months 

 and years to come to make the success possible. Thank you very 

 much. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Hebert appears at the conclusion 

 of the hearing.] 



Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Hebert. As you know, my prede- 

 cessor, Mr. English, introduced H.R. 1440 last year. It was marked 

 up by this subcommittee although the full Agriculture Committee 

 has not taken the matter up. Relative to that legislation, I wonder 



