Posted on 02/16/2017 9:03:26 AM PST by COUNTrecount
Republican-backed legislation to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is definitely one of the shortest bills Congress has dealt with in a while.
“The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018” is all the bill says regarding EPA’s elimination. The bill’s preamble has more words than its legislative language.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced the bill in February. The bill has three Republican cosponsors and has been referred to four House committees.
The Huffington Post obtained emails sent from Gaetz’s office in early February, asking other members of Congress to support his bill to terminate the EPA. Three Republican have cosponsored Gaetz’s bill.
“Our small businesses cannot afford to cover the costs associated with compliance, too often leading to closed doors and unemployed Americans,” Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote to colleagues
“It is time to take back our legislative power from the EPA and abolish it permanently,” Gaetz wrote.
Republicans have long dreamed of eliminating or radically restructuring EPA. The GOP’s 2016 platform suggested turning EPA “into an independent bipartisan commission, similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with structural safeguards against politicized science.”
President Trump said he would eliminate the “Department of Environmental Protection” on the campaign trail, but walked back this position and said he will refocus EPA to its core mission of protecting air and water quality — not fighting global warming.
Trump appointed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head EPA. Democrats largely opposed Pruitt’s nomination and are trying to delay his Senate approval until he answers questions from lawmakers.
EPA finalized 192 regulations, imposing $344 billion worth of costs on businesses and families since 2009, according to data compiled by the right-leaning American Action Forum (AAF).
We have to pass it to find out what’s inside!!
Good luck...
Good. ATF, IRS, BLM, NEXT!!
THAT'S 2 FREAKING YEARS!
IMMEDIATE! THE EPA SHALL CEASE ALL OPERATIONS IMMEDIATELY!
It’s a good idea but it’s an effort in futility. There are too many GOPe, Rino senators who would oppose it. The best thing to do is start trimming and cutting from within.
Perfect!
Its a bureaucracy. It would take at least that long to shut it down. I think that the theory is not to create a vacuum. Vacuums are bad because other stuff rushes in. Pass it now and then let Trump and Pruitt do their work.
“The Central Intelligence Agency shall terminate on March 31, 2017”
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives shall terminate on March 31, 2017”
“The Internal Revenue Service shall terminate on March 31, 2017”
Wow, this is fun. I should go into politics.
The EPA is not bad enough to be abolished. I remember what the air and rivers looked like in 1970. But it needs to be scaled back, by law, to its responsibilities and reach that it had in about 1980. (Putting on my asbestos and Nomex underwear now for the angry attacks.)
OK, well, I hope they amend the bill to say the EPA is henceforth stripped of all authority to make or enforce “rules” - and that every single damn firearm and round of ammunition issued to anyone in the agency is to be returned to military armories.
Actually, if it were to pass....you’d see just about everyone rushing to put their resumes out and try to hook up with foundations or university operations. Within six months of passage....I doubt if half the manpower would exist. If you aren’t hiring those who leave....then it’d be non-op at the 50-percent point. Mostly just guys standing around and trying to stay awake.
Yes it is and then some.
Dirty air and rivers can be cleaned, EPA commie scum cannot.
I need the media to explain this bill to me—it is _so_ complicated! ;-)
In its present incarnation, and with its present powers, it is.
Back when they cleaned up streams and made LA stop being smog-covered, ok. I even liked those Woodsy the Owl commercials.
But the monstrosity that it has grown into must be killed.
And the fields must be salted (provided we file a EPA 102.2 Environmental Impact Statement, conduct a WFO Saline Runoff analysis, get three Orders of Chemical Release from local, state and Federal authorities, monitor the field for the mandatory 7 year period, and provide annual NTSIP-EPA Hazardous Substance Monitoring reports.)
This is great l just wished l thought it had a chance of passing both houses.
>>In its present incarnation, and with its present powers, it is.
And that’s what I said. You just “forgot” to cut and paste that part.
>>Dirty air and rivers can be cleaned
Explain how? They sure weren’t being cleaned before 1970 and we were in an era of absolute prosperity back then.
I, too, remember the smog in my city back then...when ny city was bustling with industry making goods to sell to Americans. Now thanks to regulators, my hometown has clean air and captains of industry packed up and moved to other countries.
Dirty water can be solved via the court system. Those industries dumping waste into rivers used to be prosecuted under laws already on the books.
Capitalism requires government to stay out of the economy except to adjudicate lawsuits.
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