On the recordFebruary 28, 2017
My amendment today is meant to address only one of several troubling provisions in the bill. As my colleagues have pointed out, the SCRUB Act is a radical approach to deregulation and would prioritize cost savings through repeal of rules without considering their public benefit. The underlying bill would also prohibit agencies from making any new rules--even in the case of an imminent threat to public health or safety--unless the cost is offset by repealing an existing rule. We have heard often on this floor my Republican friends rail against regulations promulgated by faceless bureaucrats. Well, this bill seeks to accomplish all of this through the work of an unelected commission-- faceless--with virtually unlimited subpoena authority and jurisdiction over every existing regulation. This body would work in the shadows to roll back environmental and workplace protections, putting dollars and cents over public health. The legislation grants so much in the way of authority, but comes with so little in the way of oversight, transparency, or public accountability. President Trump and my friends on the other side of the aisle like to talk a lot about draining the swamp. Madam Chair, what the Republicans are proposing today makes a swamp look like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, all at the cost of $30 million to the American taxpayer.…





