Janice Schakowsky: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. The majority's assault on clean air continues and has culminated into what my friend…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. The majority's assault on clean air continues and has culminated into what my friend and colleague, Mr. Waxman, has rightly referred to as Dirty Air Week. The effort to further delay EPA from protecting our air would damage our environment and the health of our citizens. Today, 60 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution has reached unhealthy levels. The health care costs associated with air pollution are estimated at over $100 billion annually. But these statistics would be even worse without the protections of the Clean Air Act. According to the American Lung Association, Clean Air Act regulations prevented over 160,000 premature deaths in 2010. Over the past 20 years, the EPA estimates that the Clean Air Act prevented 21,000 cases of heart disease, 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis, 843,000 asthma attacks, and 18 million child respiratory illnesses. Yet today we consider a bill the Natural Resource's Defense Council has deemed the deadliest bill on the Republican agenda. The goal of the TRAIN Act is to undermine EPA's ability to protect our citizens from dangerous toxins through the dismantling of the Mercury and Air Toxics and Cross-State air pollution standards. As a mother and a grandmother, I have been a long-time advocate of clean air practices, especially with regard to mercury. Mercury threatens public health, but is particularly dangerous to pregnant women and children.…”