Scores of Public Interest Organizations Oppose Congressional Effort to Halt Crucial Safeguards

PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
February 14, 2011

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 683-4812, bgumm@ombwatch.org

Scores of Public Interest Organizations Oppose Congressional Effort
to Halt Crucial Safeguards

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2011—Seventy-two labor, environmental, consumer advocacy, health care, and other public interest organizations have called on lawmakers to oppose a fast-moving bill designed to halt the most important new public protections that agencies are developing to safeguard the American people.

The groups wrote to members of the House Judiciary Committee asking them to vote against H.R. 10, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), would require congressional approval for all new major regulations before they can take effect.

"This misguided bill would jeopardize crucial public protections by further complicating the rulemaking process and politicizing decisions about health and welfare," the letter says. "Further delaying the rulemaking process would prove costly. Congress recognized the need for action when it passed recent laws that delegate to agencies responsibilities for protecting children from toxic toys, families from tainted food, consumers from financial exploitation, and sick children from being denied health insurance due to a pre-existing condition."

"H.R. 10 would also give special interests another opportunity to undermine public protections," the groups wrote. "Special interest lobbyists already affect rules at the agency level, but their channels of access and influence are even more well-worn in Congress."

Organizations signing onto the letter include 350.org; AFL-CIO; AhEeCOSH; Alliance for a Just Society; American Federation of Government Employees; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; American Lung Association; American Rivers; ARISE CHICAGO; Arkansas Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO; BlueGreen Alliance; Breast Cancer Action; California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation; Center for Biological Diversity; Center for Science in the Public Interest; Clean Air Watch; Clean Water Action; Community Organizations in Action; Consumer Federation of America; Consumers Union; Defenders of Wildlife; Dēmos; Earth Day Network; Earthjustice; Easter Seals; Environment America; Environmental Defense Fund; Equal Justice Center; Families USA; Friends of the Earth; Gray Panthers; Greenpeace USA; Health Access California; Health Care for America Now; Interfaith Worker Justice; Interfaith Worker Justice Committee of Colorado; International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW); League of Conservation Voters; National Association of Consumer Advocates; National Audubon Society; National Consumers League; National Council for Occupational Safety and Health; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund; National Women's Health Network; Natural Resources Defense Council; OMB Watch; Our Bodies Ourselves; People For the American Way; Pesticide Action Network North America; Physicians for Social Responsibility; ProgressNow; Public Citizen; Reproductive Health Technologies Project; Republicans for Environmental Protection; RICOSH; Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.); Sierra Club; South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice; Southern Environmental Law Center; The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care; The TMJ Association; The Wilderness Society; Transport Workers Union of America AFL-CIO; U.S. PIRG; Union of Concerned Scientists, Scientific Integrity Program; United Steelworkers; United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities; USAction; Voces de la Frontera; Women's Voices for the Earth; Workers Interfaith Network.

The Judiciary Committee has already held a hearing on the bill, and a markup is expected soon. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) supports the bill, and OMB Watch expects him to make it a priority in the coming weeks. The bill has also been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

A copy of the groups' letter is available at http://www.ombwatch.org/files/regs/reinsactltrfeb2011.pdf.

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