Pallone Warns Republican Bills Gutting the Clean Air Act Will Have Dire Consequences at Full Committee Markup

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following opening remarks at today's Full Committee markup of 11 bills, including from the Environment and Communications and Technology subcommittees:

Today the Committee is considering 11 bills – some of them out of our Communications and Technology Subcommittee will be bipartisan, while bills out of our Environment Subcommittee will be partisan as Republicans continue to assault Americans' health care.

We will begin by considering seven Republican bills that strike at the heart of the Clean Air Act and make Americans sicker, solely to increase corporate polluter profits. Four of the bills we are considering today will undermine the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or NAAQS – a suite of health-based standards that let us know what level of pollution is safe to breathe. These bills would turn the NAAQS from standards that protect public health to ones that protect special interests.

Republicans are also taking aim at the New Source Review Program. H.R. 161 would simultaneously allow polluters to cook the books on how they measure cancer-causing emissions and remove the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review the public health and environmental impacts of major projects.

If that wasn’t enough, H.R. 6373 gives the President the ability to waive Clean Air Act permit requirements for his pet projects and creates a pay-to-pollute scheme that lets large industrial sources of pollution off the hook for the harm they cause by simply paying their way into compliance.

Looking at this slate of bills, it appears my Republican colleagues have forgotten that air pollution is dangerous and poses significant health risks, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and over 100,000 premature deaths every year. They also ignore the fact that the Clean Air Act is one of the most successful public health laws in history. It has dramatically cut air pollution since 1970, while the U.S. Gross Domestic Product has nearly quadrupled in that time. Republicans’ attempt to gut Clean Air Act protections will eliminate over half a century of economic and public health progress.

To add insult to injury, Republicans continue to ignore the affordability crisis. American families are struggling to afford their groceries, their utility bills, and their health insurance premiums. Instead of working to address this crisis, Republicans are advancing harmful bills that fundamentally undermine EPA’s ability to protect human health and the environment.

Once again, Republicans are focused on their corporate interest friends, not hardworking everyday Americans. These bills push policies that benefit their billionaire buddies and sell out Americans’ health for industry profit. Republican inaction has already sent health care premiums skyrocketing for millions of Americans, and now they want to make people even sicker as they struggle to afford care.

That’s why I continue to oppose these bills, and I strongly urge my colleagues to do the same.

We will also consider several bills out of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee. The Emergency Reporting Act, from Subcommittee Ranking Member Matsui and Representative Bilirakis, will improve processes at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assess communications failures caused by natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires. This effort is a critical step to ensure that policymakers and regulators are equipped with detailed information to identify trends and inform efforts to address points of vulnerability in preparation for future disasters.

We will also consider the Kari’s Law Reporting Act that builds upon a 2018 law. Kari’s Law requires providers of multi-line telephone systems, which serve entities like office buildings and hotels, to reconfigure their systems to enable callers to simply dial 9-1-1 without a prefix to reach emergency assistance. Unfortunately, providers have yet to fully comply with Kari’s Law, so this bill provides Congress and the FCC with the tools necessary to track down delinquent providers and ensure they comply with the law.

I appreciate the bipartisan cooperation that went into bringing these bills up, but again, I express my deep disappointment in the bills out of our Environment Subcommittee. The assault on Americans' health continues with those bills, as they only increase pollution that affects people's health.

And with that, I yield back the balance of my time.  

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