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that the Soil Conservation Service is now going to be delineating 

 on all agricultural lands all wetlands for the purposes of all Fed- 

 eral agricultural wetlands programs, and that this policy was cre- 

 ated through an administrative process that brought together all of 

 the Federal agencies conducting wetlands policy in this country. 



I know the details of this policy change are critical and they are 

 going to have to be discussed and worked over, and that is part of 

 the reason why this hearing has been called. But we can't let our- 

 selves forget just how critical that initial movement is. It is sub- 

 stantial and we have accomplished something major. 



The same thing applies to water quality protection. We are talk- 

 ing today about proposals essentially that use the watershed ap- 

 proach, with State and local people defining their problems and de- 

 fining their solutions, working with farmers and ranchers, using 

 technical and financial assistance and incentive-based programs, 

 working on site-specific problems with site-specific solutions. And 

 we are using these programs to achieve the greatest degree of 

 water quality protection possible. This is an administration posi- 

 tion and endorsed in large part by many of the interest groups on 

 both sides of this issue. This is also a major accomplishment and 

 we should remember that. 



I have no delusions, Mr. Chairman, that the intensity and con- 

 troversy surrounding the debate over all the remaining issues in 

 these areas will somehow be reduced or eliminated if we stop to 

 recognize just how far we have come. The fact remains that there 

 are important and major things that need to be done for us to be 

 able to achieve our wetlands and water quality protection goals in 

 this country. But I think it is important that we do stop for a mo- 

 ment and take stock because it should give us some hope that we 

 can find our way through some of these problems. 



With regard to some specifics in the wetlands area, the adminis- 

 tration released a comprehensive wetlands position in August of 

 last year. This position was developed through the interagency 

 working group process I referred to earlier and was the result of 

 the advice from a wide spectrum of stakeholders in this issue area. 



There are a number of Federal wetlands policy changes that 

 have occurred or are in the process of occurring as a result of this 

 administration position, and many of these changes represent sub- 

 stantial improvement from the perspective of the agricultural com- 

 munity. These changes include the exemption of prior converted 

 cropland areas from section 404 jurisdiction, the development of a 

 section 404 appeals process, and the development of a reasonable 

 timeframe within which the Corps will respond to permitting deci- 

 sions. There is a new emphasis on watershed level planning and 

 the important benefits that can provide the local communities as 

 they try to find their way through these problems, a new emphasis 

 on wetlands mitigation banking, and a renewed and ongoing com- 

 mitment to working with the voluntary restoration and protection 

 programs, like the wetland reserve and the emergency wetland re- 

 serve program. All of these have come out of this administration 

 process and we believe offer a great deal of improvement to the ag- 

 ricultural community. 



And of course, we have before us also the wetlands memorandum 

 of agreement whereby the Soil Conservation Service will now have 



