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Scalise Amendment Passes House

July 11, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Scalise today introduced an amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations Act, preventing the Army Corps from enforcing the Modified Charleston Method (MCM), a crippling wetlands mitigation standard, in Louisiana. The amendment passed the House unanimously.

“When the Army Corps forced the Modified Charleston Method upon our state three years ago, it brought a devastating halt to many beneficial development projects all across Southeast Louisiana,” Scalise said. “The MCM not only dramatically increases the costs of developing property for small businesses, it also significantly drives up the cost of our local hurricane protection projects – jeopardizing the safety of our families and communities. Appropriate wetlands mitigation and community protection in Southeast Louisiana should not be mutually exclusive. I am committed to working with our delegation to fix this flawed mandate and will continue to fight radical agency regulatory overreach.”

First introduced in May of 2011, the Modified Charleston Method is an environmental mitigation formula mandated by the Army Corps of Engineers to offset the loss of wetlands. The standard requires developers to mitigate three acres of land for every one acre of wetlands they wish to develop. Prior to the MCM, developers were only required to mitigate one additional acre for every acre they wish to develop. The land is acquired through a mitigation bank, which is in turn responsible for the mitigation of the purchased land. Mitigation is accomplished through the preservation of pristine wetlands, the enhancement of existing wetlands or the restoration of wetland habitat.

A copy of the Scalise amendment can be found here.