John Yarmuth: “Before I close my side of the argument, I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to thank my colleague Mr.…”

“Before I close my side of the argument, I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to thank my colleague Mr. Waxman for his incredible service to this body and to the country over the last several decades. One of the first things I did when I was elected to Congress in 2006 was to call Mr. Waxman to ask if I could serve under his leadership on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee because I respected him so much. He has been a phenomenal mentor to me, as he has been to hundreds of other Members of Congress over the years, and I think the country owes him a great debt of gratitude. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say, in the spirit of his championing of the environment, what we have seen again this week, not just with this bill but with the two other bills in the last 2 days, is kind of a ``wolf in sheep's clothing'' approach to the environment--dressing legislation up with very, very nice-sounding titles that essentially do exactly the opposite of what they are intending to do. This bill, far from promoting manufacturing, will make it much more difficult for the EPA to set rules, and in the process, it will not accomplish anything in encouraging manufacturing. I don't know of one businessperson who would say, ``I am going to build a plant that I, otherwise, would not build because I get to build it under old pollution rules.'' Most businesspeople are very forward looking.…”