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provement from the 450,000 acres we lost annually from the 1950's 

 to 1970's, it is still far more than the Nation can afford. 



The Interagency Working Group was formed in response to a 

 specific request to President Clinton from seven Senators. In addi- 

 tion, the President had received a letter from 20 Members of the 

 House, including five Members of this Committee, citing problems 

 with Federal wetlands programs and calling on the administration 

 to develop a "well thought-out and comprehensive proposal." 



The purpose of the Working Group was to provide a forum to 

 allow the appropriate Federal agencies to work together, with in- 

 formation from Members of the Congress and the public, to develop 

 a consensus on wetlands policy issues. The group was convened by 

 the White House Office on Environmental Policy in June and in- 

 cluded nine agencies: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 

 the Army Corps of Engineer (Corps), the Office of Management and 

 Budget (0MB), and the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Com- 

 merce, Energy, Interior, Justice, and Transportation participated. 



In addition to interagency discussion, the Working Group solicit- 

 ed the views of a broad range of stakeholders representing all per- 

 spectives in the wetlands debate, including Members of Congress, 

 representatives of State and local government, environmental in- 

 terests, the development community, agricultural interests, and sci- 

 entists. With this information in mind, the group met intensively 

 over many hours to develop a package of more than 40 specific ini- 

 tiatives. The result is a significantly revised Federal wetlands 

 policy that provides fairness, flexibility, and predictability to land- 

 owners farmers and others, while also ensuring more effective pro- 

 tection of our Nation's wetlands. 



The Clinton Plan includes both regulatory improvements and in- 

 novative, nonregulatory approaches to protect and restore wet- 

 lands. It includes administrative actions, some of which took effect 

 immediately and others that will begin during the coming months. 

 It also includes legislative recommendations for Congress to consid- 

 er during reauthorization of the CWA. 



At this time, we would like to highlight some specific elements of 

 the policy. A guiding principle in formulating the policy was to ex- 

 ercise strong Federal leadership while empowering State and local 

 action. The administration believes that the Federal Government 

 should lead by example as well as by directive. 



To this end, the existing Executive Order on wetlands will be re- 

 vised to establish an interim goal of no overall net loss of wetlands 

 and a long-term goal of increasing the quantity and quality of wet- 

 lands. The revised Executive Order will also direct Federal agen- 

 cies to take a watershed or ecosystem approach to wetlands protec- 

 tion and restoration in working toward these goals. 



The Clinton policy also identifies voluntary, nonregulatory wet- 

 lands restoration as an essential vehicle to achieve these goals. The 

 Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) is a crucial part of the adminis- 

 tration's wetlands restoration efforts. The 1990 Farm Bill requires 

 a minimum of 1 million acres to be enrolled in the Wetlands Re- 

 serve Program by the end of fiscal year 1995. 



Under the policy, the administration will use this program in the 

 Midwest in conjunction with emergency assistance programs to re- 

 store wetlands and assist farmers affected by the recent flooding. 



