Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL) offered an amendment to H.R. 4078, the so-called Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act, which would exempt safe drinking water protections from the sweeping regulatory freeze ordered under the bill. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one-third of all Americans - 117 million people - get their drinking water from public supply systems fed by seasonal streams that are losing or have lost Clean Water Act protections. Without the Hastings amendment, H.R. 4078 could prevent the EPA from fixing this problem and restoring protections that had been guaranteed by the Clean Water Act 40 years ago. This regulatory freeze bill could also block a proposed EPA rule under the Safe Drinking Water Act that would update standards to keep deadly fecal coliform matter from our drinking water. On July 25, the House rejected the Hastings amendment by a vote of 188-231 (House roll call vote 514). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. H.R. 4078 subsequently passed the House, but the Senate took no action on this legislation.