House Votes Against Protections for the Public – Again

WASHINGTON – (Dec. 2, 2011) The House today approved  the second of three dangerous bills designed to turn our nation’s regulatory system on its head and make it virtually impossible for federal agencies to protect our environment and our health.

Passage today of H.R. 3010, the Regulatory Accountability Act, comes a day after the House passed the equally bad H.R. 527, the Regulatory Flexibility Act.  Up next is the worst of the three - H.R. 10, the REINS Act, which the House is expected to take up next week.

The following is a statement from Scott Slesinger, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“Twice this week, the out-of-touch House, led by the tea party, has voted against the public and in favor of lobbyists for business interests and big polluters.  These bills will create no jobs but will place Americans at the mercy of polluters and purveyors of tainted food.

“The question now is, will these lawmakers chalk up strike three against the American public they’re supposed to represent when they vote on the REINS Act next week?”

Together, the three bills would take away health and environmental protections designed to keep us and our children healthy. They would give business interests free rein by creating new bureaucratic hurdles designed to stop or permanently delay health and environmental protections.

Specifically, the REINS Act (H.R. 10) would allow either house of Congress to block public safeguards such as food safety, environmental, health or investor protections. That would put politics and politicians – not scientific judgments, expertise or law – in the driver’s seat.

For more information on the REINS Act and the other bills just passed by the House, please see here.

And to speak with a NRDC expert on these topics, please contact Bob Keefe at bkeefe@nrdc.org or Suzanne Struglinski at sstruglinski@nrdc.org.