Steve Cohen

You shouldn't be doing that without particularly good reasons, and I don't think the burden of proof which you would have in amending the Constitution, which has very high thresholds, has been met by the proponents of this bill.

I think that what he said was wrong.

I do not doubt that Chairman Bachus and the other proponents of the RFIA sincerely share my appreciation for the importance of regulation in protecting all of us from a myriad of harms.

Regulations are critical to protecting the American people from a vast array of harms, including dirty air and water, dangerous toys, reckless financial behavior, and unsafe workplaces.

I am open to ideas on tweaking the regulatory process in modest ways to make regulatory compliance easier for small businesses and perhaps finding better ways for small business to provide input to specific rules. As drafted, though, [the…

This bill, if enacted, could jeopardize these protections in the future.

The estimated cost of workplace-related injuries is $250 billion, only 25 percent of which is covered by Workers' Comp.

We will have a whole bunch of deaths in the marketplace and deaths from consumer products.

Thank you, Mr. Bachus, and I want you to know, in your absence, we went ahead and passed quite a few new regulations.

The fact is we are repeating and rehashing the same stuff over and over here.

The Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act proposes some needlessly drastic measures that threaten to undermine public health and safety and waste public resources.

The Honorable Steve Cohen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Tennessee, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.

Most regulations are for the purpose of protecting society, and that is what they do.

Regulations protect the American public from a vast array of harms.

I think that is one of the biggest problems this country has. And the problem is not marijuana; it is the enforcement of the marijuana laws...

In our society, even a conviction for a minor, non-violent offense can effectively be a life sentence...

The President can do it now. And there are so many other laws, unjust sentences that he could take care of by commuting sentences, and he needs to do it.

The main way that we can deal with this is through pardons, by the pardon power of the President, which he has not used.

It should be, in my opinion--and I am far from a member of the tea party--but it seems like the tea party should grasp this issue.

It's a critical issue and one I hope we can find some common ground on.

H.R. 1493 threatens to undermine rulemaking by tilting this playing field in favor of anti-regulatory forces at taxpayers' expense.

I wish that we were concentrating on antitrust and airlines and what they are doing to the American consumer and employee in this country.

I ask that we unanimously support this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

I don't agree with Senator Baucus' statement. I think we are very much on schedule; we are moving forward.

There are people in jail, and your Justice Department has continued to put people in jail, for sale and use on occasion of marijuana.