Pallone Condemns Republican Resolution Gutting EPA's Ability to Curb Hazardous Air Pollution

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) had the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the House floor today in opposition to H.J. Res. 61, a resolution that invokes the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from curbing hazardous air pollutants from companies that process rubber for tire manufacturing:

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I rise in strong opposition to H.J. Res. 61, another attempt by House Republicans to ensure workers and communities continue to breathe toxic air pollution. This harmful Republican resolution puts the profits of billionaire corporate polluters over the health and welfare of the American people. It makes a mockery of Republicans’ promise to Make America Healthy Again.

This resolution is a distraction. Republicans haven’t found a way to lower grocery prices, they haven’t found a way to lower energy prices, they haven’t found a way to fund the government, and now they are on the cusp of stripping millions of people of their healthcare all so they can shower giant tax breaks on billionaires and big corporations.

Using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) hatchet to carve away critical protections from an agency that’s already been decimated by DOGE’s indiscriminate firing demonstrates how unserious Republicans are about keeping Americans safe from dangerous pollution. And another week of nonsense CRAs shows how unserious House Republicans are about governing.

Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to reduce hazardous air pollutants from large industrial sources, like rubber tire manufacturers, to protect Americans across the country from harm. To be clear, hazardous air pollutants are air toxics that are known or suspected to cause cancer and other serious health impacts like heart attacks, worsened asthma, reproductive and birth defects, as well as severe impacts on the environment. EPA must set pollution limits based on what is already being achieved at similar facilities using readily available technologies.

This is the dangerous pollution EPA’s Rubber Tire Manufacturing Rule addresses. The rule is cost-effective, protects public health, ensures industry stays competitive, and is long overdue. In fact, a court ruling required EPA to finalize this rule to close a loophole that allowed rubber processing facilities to spew unlimited hazardous air pollution.

When fully implemented, the rule will cut these harmful emissions by 171 tons per year. That includes over 100 tons of toxic organic chemicals and over 60 tons of particulate matter that will be removed from the air of the workers and communities near the impacted facilities.

But H.J.Res. 61 would throw all of those benefits away. This resolution would hamstring EPA’s ability to fulfill its obligation to protect the health and welfare of Americans from air pollution. Unfortunately for everyone with lungs, Republicans can’t leave commonsense environmental protections in place. As House Republicans move to strip health care from millions of Americans to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations, they also want to make people sicker by rolling back regulations meant to keep people safe from cancer-causing air pollution. It’s outrageous.

Contrary to what my colleagues on the other side claim, EPA’s rule was developed in close consultation with industry, using industry data. It also proposes emissions reduction technology that the best performers in the industry are already using. Overall, it’s estimated to cost less than a fraction of one percent of a company’s annual revenue, and facilities have years to comply.

This should be a no-brainer, a win-win scenario of reducing cancer causing emissions and promoting innovative technologies to modernize industry and provide regulatory certainty. I simply do not understand why House Republicans are so fixated on trying to repeal and block this work by EPA.

Madam Speaker, for the health of workers and the surrounding communities, and for the sake of clean air, I urge all my colleagues to VOTE NO on this resolution that puts the whims of billionaires and corporate polluters before the American people.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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