Committee Marks Up Legislation to Undermine EPA
(Washington, DC) - Yesterday, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a markup of H.R. 875, a bill to provide for a comprehensive assessment of the scientific and technical research on the implications of the use of mid-level ethanol blends, and H.R. 1422, the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2013. Both bills passed out of Committee despite unanimous opposition from the Committee Democrats.
At the markup, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) emphasized the importance of regular order, stating, “I am disappointed that the Committee is not following regular order on these bills. This Committee has a good tradition of following regular order in the movement of legislation, and that tradition has served both sides of the aisle well over the years. Regular order is not an arbitrary concept. It is a time tested means to perfect legislation. Moreover, I think it fosters bipartisanship. I cannot support the two bills we are marking up today in their current form.” Regular order is the practice of holding a legislative hearing, followed by a subcommittee markup, followed by a full committee markup.
H.R. 875 would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to provide a comprehensive assessment of the scientific and technical research on the implications of the use of E15, gasoline blended with up to 15 volume percent ethanol. The bill contains provisions that revoke the EPA’s previously issued E15 waivers and bars the agency from issuing any new waiver decisions until after a report on the assessment is submitted to Congress.
“This bill represents everything the Republican Party platform says is bad about the government. I will explain in layman’s terms what the bill does. It forces the EPA to regulate a product out of existence rather than let free market forces dictate the success of E15. The stated justification for this is that consumers are too stupid to use this product correctly,” said Ms. Johnson. “The Majority has apparently lost all faith in both consumers and the free market system to deal with E15. So today I will support the free market system and oppose this bill and the Majority’s attempts to expand the nanny-state.”
Though three Democratic amendments were accepted, the bill was too flawed to garner any support from Democrats. The bill was reported out of Committee with all Democrats and one Republican voting against the bill.
H.R. 1422 will skew the composition of EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) by increasing the number of industry-funded scientists at the expense of independent scientists from academic and research institutions. The bill contains provisions that require the EPA to treat scientists who conduct EPA funded research and who may have had a past contractual relationship with the EPA as having a financial conflict of interest. At the same time, the bill loosens the financial conflict of interest standards for industry-funded experts. The bill also creates a number of requirements for the Board without allocating additional resources to the EPA SAB to carry out these additional requirements.
“This bill alters the EPA’s Science Advisory Board process for the worse. It is a naked attempt to reduce legitimate scientific input at the Board, and replace it with industry funded input. If that weren’t bad enough, the bill contains several provisions which appear designed to bury the Board in a mountain of work simply to keep it from getting anything accomplished,” said Ms. Johnson.
Democrats offered amendments to ensure fairness and balance on the composition of the Board and that ensure the Board has the resources to fulfill all of the onerous new requirements laid out in the bill. A number of these amendments were accepted, however, a number of important amendments were rejected on party-line votes. The bill was reported out of Committee on a party-line vote.
You can view the bills and amendments at the links below.
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