Blake Farenthold: “I come back to the purpose of this bill: we want our regulatory agencies to be neutral. They propose a rule, they have…”

“I come back to the purpose of this bill: we want our regulatory agencies to be neutral. They propose a rule, they have done the research, and they have done the science. They wouldn't be proposing it if they didn't believe that it needed to be done. Where they crossed the line is using taxpayer money to go out and promote and advocate for it. The idea behind public comments, the whole thought behind public input is to get a diversity of ideas, but, if the solicitations seeking that comment are biased, or if the agency is advocating it, it potentially suppresses the other side. We want to get both sides of the matter. Let's look at the actual definition of propaganda. I googled it while Ms. Jackson Lee was just speaking. Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature used to promote a particular cause or point of view. Advocacy is another one that has a definition. It is public statements for or a recommendation of a particular cause or policy. So those definitions basically say you are pushing a point of view. We don't want to limit those. The definition and the purpose behind this legislation is to make our agencies fair about seeking comment and fair about listening to those comments. We don't want the agencies going into this with preconceived notions and advocating it. We want the public comment to work the way the public comment is supposed to work.…”