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Rep. Young raises a stink over skunks at water rule markup

By Ariel Wittenberg, E&E reporter

Skunks and shotguns briefly dominated a heated debate yesterday over a bill to kill the Obama administration's controversial water proposal.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) said the bill, which would require U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw their "Waters of the United States" rule and re-write it, was the equivalent of a shotgun aimed at a stinky skunk.

"My daddy taught me that if you walk by a hole and it smells like a skunk, there is a skunk in the hole," he said at yesterday's Transportation and Infrastructure markup. "The EPA is the skunk, and it is going to come out."

Young's analogy was in response to an argument put forth by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who said it would be premature to vote on H.R. 1732 before EPA's rule came out. If Congress ultimately does not like the rule, DeFazio said, it can use the Congressional Review Act, an obscure tool passed in the 1990s that allows Congress to negate agency rules.

But Young disagreed, saying the committee should attempt to shoot down EPA's rule before it is published and leave the Congressional Review Act as a backup plan.

"My daddy also said you always carry a shotgun, and you carry it with two shells so that you shoot [the skunk] with one, and if that don't kill him, you get him with the next one," Young said. "This bill is the first shell."

Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) countered with a different stinky scenario, urging a wait-and-see approach to EPA's rule. Admitting he "did not grow up on a farm," Capuano used an example of a stench under a house and said shooting could have dire consequences if a skunk's presence is not first confirmed.

"That smell could be poor Rover who is sulking under the house because he got skunked," Capuano said. "So I say you wait to see the skunk come out, because no one wants to shoot the family dog."

Ultimately, committee members went with Young's approach, voting 36-22 to take their shot (Greenwire, April 15).