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).
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