David Cay Johnston

Let me ask my friend to answer this question: EPA does not do anything. It puts no rule up for review. What is your remedy if you are an aggrieved party, if you are outraged citizens, if you are millions of American citizens, what is your…

It is quite clear. It is a low barrier. You have to show the rule is likely to terminate, the agency needs additional time, that terminating the rule would not be in the public interest, and that the agency has not expeditiously completed…

It would even more clearly be consensual under those because they make sure, and they say, ``in sole discretion of the agency head,'' and then they go back, under section 625, and ensure that there is no appeal from the exercise of sole…

Well, let us say that the director of EPA or another agency looks back and says, ``We have done a heck of a good job, we have great bureaucrats in this agency, and we do not think anything needs to be reviewed.'' So the slate is clean, it…

And that is why we have every single provision of that Clean Air Act unchanged, not overridden, and the full force and effect if this bill passes. Did the Senator know the original risk assessment was proposed by a Democrat, namely me, and…

If you ever got a cost-benefit analysis done under Glenn-Chafee, all that is consensual. If you want to do it, if you feel like it, if it feels good, do it. Otherwise, do not do it because you do not have to. It is business as usual. Am I…

I suggest to my friend from Ohio that there is only one review, explicitly only one review, under our proposal, and that is final agency action.

But you said you would have a separate review, even under what counsel for EPA says, that would come only at the final review and solely for the purpose of determining whether or not the final agency action was arbitrary and capricious; is…

I have never said this ought to be consensual, that it ought to be solely in the discretion of the agency head. Never have said that. Never believed that. It simply is not so. I think we have delivered very, very well on this letter of…

The advisory boards, in my judgment, are useful, and I tried to sell advisory boards. I do not think they are central to the process, but if the Senator from Ohio thinks they are important, I will come back----

I tell my friend that the American public has come to Congress. That is what we are doing here today. That is what this is all about. EPA has reviewed its own rules and says they are not based on real risks, they are based on public…

Senator David Pryor is a man of many accomplishments. In his distinguished career, he has been a journalist and founder of a newspaper, a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives and a two-term Governor of his State. In Arkansas…

That is exactly right. The Roth bill, which came out unanimously, out of Governmental Affairs, had a lot of teeth. The Senator and I have talked about that. My own view was I liked some of the teeth. I thought some of the other teeth were…

I want to clear this up, because we say specifically that there is--all right, let me read this, from section 625 of Dole- Johnston: Compliance or noncompliance by an agency with the provisions of this subchapter and subchapter III shall…

Again, the question is, what is the value of a human life? It is, in my view, very clearly by nature nonquantifiable.

There is the standard right there. It is plain English. It is as plain as it can be. It is ``arbitrary and capricious or abuse of discretion,'' that is the sole and only basis for review of the cost-benefit analysis or of the risk…

Oh, well, sure. Congress can always pass a law. The Constitution provides that. This bill does not provide that. But save Congress enacting a law, it is consensual, is it not?

That is exactly correct. But they say, trust us, we will do them in our sole discretion.

There has been a risk assessment rulemaking rule out there--Executive order I should say--under every President since President Ford. By the way, I have a copy of it here. The problem is that it is consensual as well, and it is generally…

I have given the answer to that question. I will give it again. It is because the definition of section 621 includes both quantifiable and nonquantifiable and because life is, by its very nature, not quantifiable in value, although we may…

Under the original Dole amendment, people would be able to petition as often as they wished to. They would have an automatic judicial review of that. Sally Katzen suggested--I think it was an excellent idea. I think the Senator carried…

Generally for the life, for the 20th or 30th time, the value of the life is not quantifiable by its nature.

The answer is, of course, I want that ``USDA inspected'' label on there, and I want scientists to make that inspection based on scientific standards and not on some public opinion poll or some prejudice or some superstition. Put good…

Look. That is precisely the same. That is an additional interpretation. ``Arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion.'' That is the standard that we bring forward. We leave out ``otherwise not in accordance with law'' because we wanted…

You provide for the court to use section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act in order to give the needful review. We provide that the court of appeals grant such equitable relief as is appropriate. If anything, ours is broader than…