House Delivers More Regulatory Relief for America's Job Creators and Workers

Press Release

The U.S. House of Representatives today approved another bipartisan proposal to save jobs. The Obama administration recently issued a series of multi-billion dollar regulations affecting tens of thousands of manufacturing and industrial facilities nationwide. H.R. 2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, offers a common-sense alternative approach to these rules, providing America's job creators with much-needed regulatory relief. The measure passed the House with strong support by a vote of 275 to 142.

H.R. 2250, introduced by Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), will preserve hundreds of thousands of jobs currently at risk from EPA's boiler MACT rules. To protect jobs and produce sensible environmental safeguards, this legislation gives EPA time to re-propose and finalize new rules so that standards and timelines for reducing emissions from industrial boilers and incinerators are achievable for real world facilities.

"H.R. 2250 helps lift the burden of excessive regulations on America's job creators," said Rep. Griffith. "Unreasonable regulations -- like the currently written Boiler MACT rules -- are threatening jobs across the nation and creating uncertainty for businesses. The investments required by these rules are irreversible. For those businesses that decide to stop producing their product at a particular location, the job losses are also irreversible. The good news here is that excessive regulations are reversible and fixable. H.R. 2250 is an opportunity to fix these regulations and keep the focus on protecting valuable American jobs. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to take up this bipartisan jobs legislation soon."

Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) praised passage of both H.R. 2250 and H.R. 2681, the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act, which passed the House last week and offers similarly sensible regulatory solutions for cement manufacturers.

"The passage of these two bills is yet another example of the House's leadership in bringing balance to our environment and energy policies," said Whitfield. "EPA must consider the consequences on jobs and the economy when they implement new regulations and the passage of the Boiler and Cement MACT bills will provide EPA the time it needs and a framework to propose regulations that have achievable and workable timelines and standards without putting jobs at risk. These bills protect over 230,000 jobs at risk as a result of the Boiler MACT rules, and at least 19,000 at risk because of the Cement MACT rules, while also ensuring that there is a timeline in place for the agency to issue new regulations to protect health and the environment."

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) lent his support to the legislation as well. Upton has consistently focused the work of the Energy and Commerce Committee this year on bills that will create and protect jobs, and passage of the EPA Regulatory Relief Act and the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act are two key components of a broader effort to pursue regulations that protect jobs rather than destroying them.

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