Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, we have the opportunity today to help many struggling small businesses and the jobs they support by voting yes on H.R. 4557, the BRICK Act. How did we get here? Last October, the EPA finalized an extremely stringent new rule for the brick making industry. Most of the companies that find themselves threatened by this rule are small businesses--many are family-owned--and the industry is still dealing with the effects of the recession and the weak recovery that continues to suppress demand for bricks and other building materials. Few, if any, brick makers can easily afford the estimated $4.4 million dollars it will take to bring a typical facility into compliance and the industry is currently challenging the rule in federal court. The BRICK Act simply extends the compliance deadlines for the rule until after judicial review is complete. This commonsense step would prevent brick makers from having to initiate costly and potentially irreversible compliance steps--and in some cases shut their doors entirely and lay off workers--over a rule whose legality is still in question. This is far from a hypothetical concern. EPA's last set of Brick standards in 2003 were vacated by a federal court in 2007, but by that time the industry had already been forced to spend millions on compliance. None of us want to see that happen again. It's a matter of fairness. It's a matter of commonsense.…”