Gregory Meeks: “Let me start by saying straight out that I do not support the underlying bill. I encourage my colleagues to support my…”

“Let me start by saying straight out that I do not support the underlying bill. I encourage my colleagues to support my amendment that would lessen the negative budget impact of this bill and exempt any rules issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development from additional judicial review and delay. I think this is important for all of us in the House, whether we be Democrats or Republicans. First, in dealing with the overall bill, it would severely hamstring and weaken our country's regulatory agencies. Dating back more than 100 years, regulatory agencies have executed congressional directives or identified public problems and fixed them utilizing their agency's expertise. This bill undercuts agencies' ability to do both of those things. It also throws out of balance our systems of checks and balances. Recently, we witnessed a public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, where thousands did not have access to safe, potable drinking water. Is the natural response to this crisis to hinder the very agencies who are supposed to protect the public? It is not the natural response. It is the wrong response. We shouldn't tie the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies whose main objective is to protect our citizens. In attacking Federal agencies that protect the public with safeguards, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are actually attacking the public interest.…”