PALLONE AND DEGETTE ADMONISH E&C REPUBLICANS FOR PARTISAN PIPELINE SAFETY REAUTHORIZATION PROCESS, DEMAND IMMEDIATE HEARING

Letter

"We are writing to express our disappointment with the lack of engagement and any bipartisan Committee process on reauthorizing vital pipeline safety programs at the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). As you are aware, PHMSA's pipeline safety authorities lapse on September 30, 2023, and to-date, the Committee has not undertaken any formal activity on legislation to reauthorize the programs. This lack of action makes it impossible to enact a final pipeline safety reauthorization bill by the end of this month. We ask that the Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee hold an oversight hearing immediately into pipeline safety before advancing any partisan legislation."

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"Any legislation that will eventually be signed into law will need bipartisan support, yet Republican Majority Committee staff have not engaged with our staff on the draft bill. In fact, neither we nor Democratic Committee staff were notified that Republicans were working on partisan draft legislation until we saw a press release detailing the draft bill when it was released."

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"The Republican draft bill has several poison-pill provisions completely unrelated to pipeline safety that Democrats oppose, including language that would allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to overrule environmental protection statutes and shortcut the existing pipeline review process. Focusing on a partisan exercise will only further increase the amount of time it will take for us to come together on a bipartisan compromise that the House and Senate can support, and that the President can sign into law. The disturbing partisan process that you have taken stands in stark contrast to the one that Democrats moved forward with four years ago when we were in the majority."

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