Most Dangerous Bill You've Never Heard Of Just Passed The House
EDUCATE! CONGRESS, LEGISLATION
By Carl Pope, www.huffingtonpost.com
January 24th, 2017
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Above Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
Last, week, under the cover of a media bliss-out except among Koch funded
right-wing channels, the House of Representatives passed a bill which would
effectively repeal future standard setting under every important
environmental, public health, consumer protection, labor standards,
occupational safety and civil rights law on the books.
The bill, called the REINS Act, requires that any future major regulation
adopted by an Executive Agency - say a new toxic chemical standard required
by the recently enacted Chemical Safety Act, or a new consumer protection
rule about some innovative but untested kind of food additive - must be
approved by a specific resolution in each House of Congress within 70 days
to take effect.
To give a sense of the scale of this road-block, in 2015 there were 43 such
major federal regulations passed to protect the public; among them were food
safety regulations, the Clean Power Plan regulating pollution from
electrical generating facilities, net neutrality rules protecting the
internet from monopoly, restrictions on predatory lending and energy
efficiency standards for appliances.
If the REINS Act had been in effect, it's unlikely that the Tea
Party-dominated Republican caucus in the House would have approved of any of
these rules. Future standard setting under the entire body of legislation
enacted over the past 40 years to protect the public, from the Clean Air Act
to the Dodd Frank financial sector reforms, would be frozen. Over time, as
new health, safety, consumer and labor protection issues arise, all of these
laws will effectively have been repealed, with no public debate and no
accountability. It will also be impossible to restore them as long as the
REINS Act is in effect, because by requiring Congress to approve every
regulation, it makes it impossible to pass technically complex and
scientifically valid rules on any topic of controversy.
As one example, the REINS Act would totally neuter the new Chemical Safety
Act, just passed by the Republican Congress last year. The Act requires EPA
to review and set standards for 10 widely abused chemicals in the next six
months alone. The Act passed only because in exchange, states gave up much
of their power to protect their citizens from toxic chemicals; without that
incentive, the Tea Party will certainly act to prevent EPA from restricting
the use of these chemicals. But the states only agreed to give up in
exchange for the promise that EPA would act. But the REINS act neuters this
promise. Even if the House Republican caucus was willing in theory to
consider such rules, there is simply no way Congress could add 10-40 new
pieces of legislation to its work load in the chemical safety area alone. In
fact, the House also just passed legislation to allow it to REPEAL all of
President Obama's regulatory acts in the last eight months of his term in
office with ONE vote. Why? Because House members said there was not time for
individual votes on each rule - exactly the requirement they just
established for new rules.
Worse, Congress totally lacks the technical competence to review these kinds
of complex rules. Do we really want members of Congress deciding whether a
chemical can safely be used in food packaging? Or the proper procedures for
approving new drugs as safe and effective? Or setting the allowable safety
standard for heavy metals in drinking water?
The vote was 237-187. All Republicans voted for it; only two Democrats,
Colin Peterson of Minnesota and Henry Cuellar of Texas, joined them. A
Google search five days after the bill passed the House revealed no mention
in major media except one Reuters story with limited pick-up and a
Washington Post op-ed by one of its major supporters. Even on-line virtually
all of the commentary was from the backers of the REINS Act; the only
significant alerts of the danger came from the Blue Green Alliance and
DeSmogBlog.
Progressives may be counting on the fact that the Senate has previously
refused to pass the bill, and that it's broad over-reaching will doom it.
But these are not ordinary times and past behavior is far from reliable in
predicting today's politics.
It's time - past time - for a massive mobilization to make clear to Congress
and the new President that a wholesale repeal of 40 years of progress in
environmental protection, civil rights, labor standards, health and safety
and consumer protection is a third rail, and that pretending that the REINS
act increases accountability is a fig-leaf that public scrutiny must shred.
Ask your favorite public interest organization what it is doing today to
stop the REINS Act in the Senate.
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Most Dangerous Bill You've Never Heard Of Just Passed The House
Educate! Congress, Legislation
By Carl Pope, www.huffingtonpost.com
January 24th, 2017
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Above Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
Last, week, under the cover of a media bliss-out except among Koch funded
right-wing channels, the House of Representatives passed a bill which would
effectively repeal future standard setting under every important
environmental, public health, consumer protection, labor standards,
occupational safety and civil rights law on the books.
The bill, called the REINS Act, requires that any future major regulation
adopted by an Executive Agency - say a new toxic chemical standard required
by the recently enacted Chemical Safety Act, or a new consumer protection
rule about some innovative but untested kind of food additive - must be
approved by a specific resolution in each House of Congress within 70 days
to take effect.
To give a sense of the scale of this road-block, in 2015 there were 43 such
major federal regulations passed to protect the public; among them were food
safety regulations, the Clean Power Plan regulating pollution from
electrical generating facilities, net neutrality rules protecting the
internet from monopoly, restrictions on predatory lending and energy
efficiency standards for appliances.
If the REINS Act had been in effect, it's unlikely that the Tea
Party-dominated Republican caucus in the House would have approved of any of
these rules. Future standard setting under the entire body of legislation
enacted over the past 40 years to protect the public, from the Clean Air Act
to the Dodd Frank financial sector reforms, would be frozen. Over time, as
new health, safety, consumer and labor protection issues arise, all of these
laws will effectively have been repealed, with no public debate and no
accountability. It will also be impossible to restore them as long as the
REINS Act is in effect, because by requiring Congress to approve every
regulation, it makes it impossible to pass technically complex and
scientifically valid rules on any topic of controversy.
As one example, the REINS Act would totally neuter the new Chemical Safety
Act, just passed by the Republican Congress last year. The Act requires EPA
to review and set standards for 10 widely abused chemicals in the next six
months alone. The Act passed only because in exchange, states gave up much
of their power to protect their citizens from toxic chemicals; without that
incentive, the Tea Party will certainly act to prevent EPA from restricting
the use of these chemicals. But the states only agreed to give up in
exchange for the promise that EPA would act. But the REINS act neuters this
promise. Even if the House Republican caucus was willing in theory to
consider such rules, there is simply no way Congress could add 10-40 new
pieces of legislation to its work load in the chemical safety area alone. In
fact, the House also just passed legislation to allow it to REPEAL all of
President Obama's regulatory acts in the last eight months of his term in
office with ONE vote. Why? Because House members said there was not time for
individual votes on each rule - exactly the requirement they just
established for new rules.
Worse, Congress totally lacks the technical competence to review these kinds
of complex rules. Do we really want members of Congress deciding whether a
chemical can safely be used in food packaging? Or the proper procedures for
approving new drugs as safe and effective? Or setting the allowable safety
standard for heavy metals in drinking water?
The vote was 237-187. All Republicans voted for it; only two Democrats,
Colin Peterson of Minnesota and Henry Cuellar of Texas, joined them. A
Google search five days after the bill passed the House revealed no mention
in major media except one Reuters story with limited pick-up and a
Washington Post op-ed by one of its major supporters. Even on-line virtually
all of the commentary was from the backers of the REINS Act; the only
significant alerts of the danger came from the Blue Green Alliance and
DeSmogBlog.
Progressives may be counting on the fact that the Senate has previously
refused to pass the bill, and that it's broad over-reaching will doom it.
But these are not ordinary times and past behavior is far from reliable in
predicting today's politics.
It's time - past time - for a massive mobilization to make clear to Congress
and the new President that a wholesale repeal of 40 years of progress in
environmental protection, civil rights, labor standards, health and safety
and consumer protection is a third rail, and that pretending that the REINS
act increases accountability is a fig-leaf that public scrutiny must shred.
Ask your favorite public interest organization what it is doing today to
stop the REINS Act in the Senate.
