Lois Capps: “I thank my colleague for yielding time. Mr. Chairman, I express my strong opposition to this bill that will dismantle…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding time. Mr. Chairman, I express my strong opposition to this bill that will dismantle public health standards and safeguards and increase air pollution. The TRAIN Act may have started as a ``study,'' but it has transformed into a fundamentally different beast. It will neither create jobs nor stimulate the economy. Instead, the TRAIN Act indefinitely blocks the EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. These are designed to protect our children and our families from dangerous pollutants. We know that blocking these standards will lead to tens of thousands of premature deaths every single year. It will lead to more heart attacks, more respiratory illnesses, more children in the hospital hooked up to respirators. The TRAIN Act means more exposure to toxic mercury as well, a brain poison that causes developmental disorders, especially in small children and the unborn. But, Mr. Chairman, the TRAIN Act will also hurt the economy. It will make it harder for families to make ends meet. It will force Americans to miss millions of days of work each year in order to care for sick family members or themselves. It will waste billions of taxpayer dollars treating preventable illnesses and disease caused by pollution, which could have been prevented. And it will saddle families and businesses with out-of- pocket medical costs and higher insurance premiums.…”