House Resolution 3 - Introduced HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 3 BY WATTS , MASSIE , CHAMBERS , BYRNES , BAUDLER , FORRISTALL , L. MILLER , SODERBERG , DEYOE , S. OLSON , DRAKE , RAYHONS , SWEENEY , BRANDENBURG , and WORTHAN A Resolution relating to the regulation of intrastate 1 waters. 2 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the United States 3 Constitution provides powers not granted to the 4 federal government nor prohibited to the states by the 5 Constitution are reserved to the states, establishing 6 federalism and state sovereignty as integral founding 7 principles of American government; and 8 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in Solid 9 Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. United States 10 Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159 (2001) and in 11 Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715 (2006) held that 12 the federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean 13 Water Act) did not intend to grant federal authority 14 over intrastate waters and that intrastate waters were 15 not subject to regulation under the interstate commerce 16 clause; and 17 WHEREAS, legislation has previously been introduced 18 in the United States Congress to expand the Clean Water 19 Act’s jurisdiction to include intrastate waters; and 20 WHEREAS, the expanded jurisdiction under the 21 proposed legislation would grant the United States 22 Environmental Protection Agency broad and vague 23 flexibility to interpret federal jurisdiction 24 expansively, which the agency attempted to do under the 25 current Clean Water Act and which the United States 26 -1- LSB 1636YH (4) 84 tm/rj 1/ 2

H.R. 3 Supreme Court prevented the agency from doing; and 27 WHEREAS, the proposed expanded jurisdiction would 28 severely diminish state sovereignty over its natural 1 resources, and would detrimentally involve the federal 2 government in an inefficient and cumbersome effort 3 to regulate highly localized water resources such as 4 abandoned pits and ponds; and 5 WHEREAS, jurisdiction over intrastate water 6 resources is a role traditionally held by individual 7 state governments in order to promote efficient and 8 effective usage of intrastate water resources; NOW 9 THEREFORE, 10 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, That 11 the State of Iowa supports the continued sovereignty 12 and jurisdiction of the states to regulate intrastate 13 water resources and opposes any attempt by the federal 14 government to diminish this jurisdiction unnecessarily. 15 -2- LSB 1636YH (4) 84 tm/rj 2/ 2