Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``Control of Air Pollution From New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards''

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CARDENAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to S.J. Res. 11.

Last year, more than 137 million people in the United States were living in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution, and we need to do better for them. It is currently estimated that 72 million Americans are exposed to high levels of air pollution due to their proximity to high-traffic trucking routes. These figures have real consequences, and they cost lives.

With three of California's largest trucking routes cutting through my district, the district that I represent in the San Fernando Valley, these figures are a community reality for us.

After decades of heavy-duty vehicles generating pollution in their backyards, my constituents experienced the injustice of disproportionately high rates of respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular complications, and cancer.

The EPA's heavy-duty NOX rule is a long-overdue step in the right direction to protect the health and well-being of communities across the United States, including my own.

With this rule, the EPA could prevent up to 2,900 premature deaths per year, 6,700 fewer hospital admissions and emergency department visits, and 18,000 fewer cases of childhood asthma. These are the things that we need to work on in the House of Representatives. These are the lives of our children, grandchildren, parents, and grandparents.

Last Congress, Democrats worked and secured historic investments through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to accelerate our progress in developing cleaner zero-emission technologies that will improve public health.

That includes $5 billion for clean schoolbuses, an effort that I championed alongside Congresswoman Hayes, Senator Padilla, and Senator Warnock.

The Republican-backed S.J. Res. 11 unravels the progress that we have made, and we must do more. It attacks necessary Clean Air Act protections and would repeal the meaningful actions that the EPA has taken.

Today's CRA abandons the American people. It abandons our children. It abandons our grandchildren and future generations. It forces our communities to continue to breathe polluted air and puts them on a path to an unlivable future.

It is important for us to understand that in this great Nation we have technology like no other, and we have capacity like no other. Therefore, all it takes is the political will of us on both sides of the aisle to do the right thing--to make the improvements that I just outlined here.

Mr. Speaker, I grew up in Los Angeles where we had first-stage smog alerts. Today, my children don't know what they are. Today, my grandchildren are being raised in Los Angeles. If we move the clock back, my grandchildren, unfortunately, will be able to speak of these smog alerts, just like I unfortunately had to be subjected to it as a child. We can do better, and we must do better.

Growing up in the neighborhood that I now represent, I was the first councilmember to turn down the expansion of a dump site--another polluting element. Yes, the unions came up to me and said: ``We are going to lose 200 jobs. You can't do this.'' I said: ``We must.''

We found a solution to recreate those jobs on the same site, to have a cleaner, more effective way of dealing with the trash that the over 4 million people in my city create every single day.

It is really important for us to understand that for us to pass this resolution it will send us backwards and hurt generations today and more generations to come.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source