Ed Whitfield: “I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee for offering this amendment. He always does a great job of articulating his…”

“I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee for offering this amendment. He always does a great job of articulating his position on these issues, some of which are pretty complicated. In this amendment, he would add illness-related work absences to the considerations when EPA is setting the compliance deadline. And of course that's one of the main purposes of H.R. 2250, to allow additional time for universities, hospitals, and industries in complying with these rather complicated Boiler MACT rules. And in the legislation, we set out six or seven specific items that EPA must consider in setting the compliance deadline. They do have to set it no sooner than within 5 years, but the EPA administrator has additional time after that. And the section of the bill that I'm talking about identifies specific issues relevant to a facility's ability to comply and simply ensures that in setting these compliance dates, plant- focused considerations are taken into account. Now, EPA already has the responsibility for considering health impacts in setting its standards. And its unclear exactly how this amendment would be implemented different from what the act already requires the EPA to do. So I'm going to respectfully oppose the amendment and ask that it be defeated.…”