Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Stopping the EPA's aggression

Now that the GOP has taken over the House of Representatives, and will most likely take over the Senate in 2012, they appear to be gearing up to reign in the EPA's aggression by using a rarely used law called the the Congressional Review Act. The CRA was created in 1996 that allows Congress to veto regulatory changes that were created in the Executive branch agencies, such as the EPA.

According to GOP lawmakers, they intend to turn the EPA on its ear to include using the CRA. It allows the GOP to do an end run on democrats, because it allows them to skip Senate filibusters; which means that the GOP doesn't have to negotiate with Harry Reid to bring a vote to the floor to secure a 60 vote majority.

Due to the historic upset in the House, it's likely that some democrat lawmakers may support the GOP's efforts in curtailing the EPA's contentious regulations. With a year to go until the next election cycle, many of these democrats are supporting the effort for fear of losing their seats.

Whatever the case is, it seems that GOP lawmakers are prepared to use whatever means necessary to put the out of control EPA on a short leash.

We'll see.

Related stories: GOP plans strategy to stymie EPA