David Cay Johnston

I invite my friend from Ohio to go back and read the letter. He may be also complaining about judicial review provisions. Did the Senator have any judicial review in his proposal?

Let me tell you why. When you go to (c), then you cannot satisfy your benefits justifying the cost. But the statute required you to do something. And so you are required to go ahead and do what the statute says, notwithstanding that the…

The Senator says that the Secretary of Agriculture objects because there is an interlocutory appeal provided in S. 343. Having recognized that both bills, the Glenn substitute and S. 343, provide for an appeal from the final agency action…

Is the Senator aware that at my behest, we put in language in the bill contained on page 36 that says if scientific, technical, or economic uncertainties or nonquantifiable benefits to health, safety, or the environment identified by the…

Is the Senator aware that S. 343 does not allow judicial review at every step along the way? It simply allows an interlocutory review for three limited questions. First, whether it is a major rule; that is, whether its impact will be $50…

I will say in response that really the majority leader's amendment adds nothing to what is already in the bill except it says including E. coli. Health including E. coli. A health threat already included E. coli. It already includes…

Does that not cover the exact things the Senator from Illinois was talking about, the boy with the asthma, the kid with the lead?

Does the Senator understand my problem with the phrase, ``in the event of conflict, the statute under which the rule is promulgated shall govern''?

The point is not what has happened in past history. We are dealing with what this bill says now here. I and my staff worked with the majority leader on this very provision to take care of not only E. coli, not only cryptosporidium, not…

About 5 million. When they affect small business, they are likely to be a major rule. But we have that provided for in the Coverdell amendment of yesterday with the reg-flex, and I believe that solves that problem. What we do not want to…

Under the law of the Supreme Court, in the Chevron case, the last and most definitive case I know of on the issue, they say specifically if the Congress has specifically spoken to an issue and the intent is clear, then the agency must…

If the Senator will let me answer, the question is, what is a conflict? If one statute requires something, a cost-benefit analysis, which this does, or a risk assessment and the other statute does not, is that a conflict or is that…

I have been in towns in Louisiana which have been subjected to some of these incredible regulations that would fine them for doing things which just went contrary to common sense. I would sit there with the mayors of these various towns…

The bill out of committee did have the sunset and did not have any ability to get court orders to order the agency to take action.

Well, the issue was at least talked about by the Senator from Michigan. I do not know that the Senator from Michigan suggested this exact fix. He was at least in the room. I thought it was he who raised this question of quantifiable and…

I rise in support of the Abraham amendment. I congratulate the Senator for, first, his concern about small business, which is a concern of all Members on regulations; second, for having an appropriate screening mechanism to prevent the…

We believe so, but if it needs to be further clarified, it can be. The idea here is that you want to have this determination made early enough in the process so that you can remedy the defects in the rule while the rule is still going on…

You have a choice. If you wait until the final appeal, it would be a more limited choice because the only remedy provided there is for the court, in effect, to order the reg-flex analysis, and if that then would call for a modification in…

I will not propose that amendment today, but I simply ask the Senator, in fact both Senators from Georgia, if they will continue to work with us with a view to dealing with this problem of agency overload, hoping to find some…

The reason for having the interlocutory appeal is that the question can be put at rest early in the process. If, for example, an agency determines that the rule is likely to have an impact of less than $50 million a year, then it would not…

No; the question of whether this is a rule which has a substantial, significant effect on a substantial number of small businesses, which is the trigger for the reg-flex, it is the intent here--and this language has not been drawn--it is…

One of the myths put out about the so-called Dole-Johnston amendment is that it contains a supermandate. That is, that the present requirements of law--for example, on the Clean Air Act, when it sets standards, for example, of maximum…

The first appeal in the interlocutory appeal process would be on the question of major rules, whether it meets the $50 million threshold, whether it is a matter that involves the environment, health, and safety, or whether it has a…

No, but you would preclude a review, for example, on whether this is a major rule, whether it has $50 million, if that is the trigger, or $100 million, which I hope we can get an amendment in to make it $100 million. That question would be…

in my judgment, there have been a number of premature pronouncements about the outcome of the President's trips to Moscow and Kiev that I believe are one-sided and unfair. Many important achievements have been overlooked and ignored, and…