Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer my amendment, No. 62, as printed in the rule.

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Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia. Mr. Chairman, my amendment to the bill today is very straightforward. What it would do is preserve our Nation's specialty glass manufacturers from EPA overregulation.

Specialty glass manufacturers, these are the small businesses. These are facilities typically employing less than 50 employees. Yet, they produce the stained glass windows that adorn our churches, decorative vases, commemorative and artisan products.

West Virginia has a proud tradition of specialty glass manufacturing. In fact, one of the oldest companies is Blenko Glass in Milton, West Virginia, which is in my district. Its limited edition pieces are prized by collectors and have been handed down through generations.

Let me give my colleagues a sense of where some of the Blenko Glass is today: Colonial Williamsburg, Westminster Abbey--the replacement glass for antique windows at the White House is from Blenko Glass. Jackie Kennedy actually used Blenko Glass at the White House--the Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. And that beautiful award from the Country Music Association that is given out to the recipient, it is a piece of Blenko Glass.

This is proud American tradition, and that tradition is now in jeopardy. Blenko, like all other specialty glass manufacturers in the Nation, is facing changes to the standards that would make it harder to make glass. The EPA is considering revising the current regulation to make it harder for these small businesses to simply make glass.

My amendment would simply protect specialty glass manufacturers that use noncontinuous furnaces for their glassmaking. The rules for continuous furnaces for the bigger glass-producing facilities, which produce items like glass bottles, cookware, and windows, would still apply under current regulation.

I urge my colleagues' support for this amendment to protect our Nation's small, specialty, and often family-owned, glass manufacturers.

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Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia. Mr. Chairman, again, let me make reference to what the existing EPA regulations do. There are current regulations, but the exemptions from the current regulation, as it stands right now, are for those glass manufacturers that are noncontinuous furnaces and produce under a certain amount of tonnage of glass each year.

The EPA is looking at changing those regulations. We are not trying to carve-out a new exemption. We are just trying to sustain and contain in the current law the exemptions for the noncontinuous furnaces and those under a certain amount of tonnage. So we are not making any changes. We are simply trying to maintain the current exemption because we see the EPA out looking to make changes to eliminate the current exemptions that exist in the law.

Once again, another step of the EPA overreach that will be jeopardizing the small glass manufacturers that mean so much to not only our employment base, but also our heritage.

I encourage support for my amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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