14 



tory program so that landowners, farmers, and others can seek 

 review of jurisdictional determinations, administrative penalties, 

 and permit denials without going to court. 



The Corps will also modify its regulations to impose deadlines to 

 ensure that permitting decisions are made in a timely fashion. The 

 policy also endorses the use of mitigation banks for compensatory 

 mitigation under the Section 404 program within environmentally 

 sound limits. Mitigation banks developed within the context of a 

 watershed planning effort can assist in integrating permit-by- 

 permit mitigation of unavoidable wetland losses into an overall wa- 

 tershed restoration strategy. 



The Clinton policy takes several steps to increase the predictabil- 

 ity and public acceptance of efforts to identify areas as wetlands 

 subject to jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. Use of the 1987 

 wetlands delineation manual has provided a workable and broadly 

 accepted delineation procedure over the past two years. 



The administration supports continued use of the 1987 manual 

 by all agencies pending completion and review of the National 

 Academy of Sciences study, expected in September 1994. To in- 

 crease public confidence in the Section 404 program, the adminis- 

 tration also is recommending Congressional endorsement of contin- 

 ued use of the 1987 manual. 



To put to rest the notion that Congress did not intend to protect 

 wetlands under the CWA, the administration recommends that ex- 

 plicit definitions of the terms "wetlands" and "waters of the 

 United States" be included in the statute, consistent with long- 

 standing regulatory definitions. The current Act does indeed refer 

 to "wetlands," but does not define the term. 



Finally, the administration's policy revised the definitions of dis- 

 charge of dredged and fill material to close regulatory loopholes 

 that allowed wetlands to be drained, ditched, or cleared without a 

 Section 404 permit. The Plan recommends that Congress affirm 

 these definitional changes in legislation. 



In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we believe the administration's 

 reform package represents a tremendous opportunity to move 

 beyond the polarization that has characterized the wetlands policy 

 debate in recent years. We look forward to working closely with 

 the Committee to enact bipartisan legislation that will improve 

 wetlands protection in the United States. 



Thank you very much. My colleagues and I look forward to an- 

 swering your questions. 



[The statement of Mr. Wayland can be found at the end of the 

 hearing.] 



Mr. Studds. Thank you very much. The Chair will announce 

 that we are going to apply, for obvious reasons, the five-minute 

 rule and the light system very strictly to ourselves, regardless of 

 the size of the State we represent. Let's do something different 

 here. 



We obviously are now seized with a very major problem. A very 

 complicated problem, and a very controversial matter. This has en- 

 gendered a great deal of emotional rhetoric on all sides of the ques- 

 tion. 



Prior to someone's introducing the administration's bill or some 

 variation on that theme before the House, there are a couple of 



