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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumGOP cabinet boycott reaffirms Senate is archaic embarrassment
Republicans try the "you did it first" defense after attempting to sabotage yet another Obama appointeeBY ALEX PAREENE
Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee yesterday unexpectedly boycotted a vote to confirm Gina McCarthy, President Barack Obamas pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, denying the committee a quorum and preventing McCarthy from moving to a full confirmation vote. The move, announced Thursday morning, was unexpected. It made Democrats mad. It shouldnt have been unexpected.
The issue is that Republicans wont sign on to McCarthy or any EPA administrator until she agrees to force the EPA to submit everything they do to a very business-friendly (time- and money-intensive) analysis. Heres how Politico explains it:
Republican leaders were unmoved, though, saying the Obama administration deserves blame for the impasse by refusing to fully answer questions that GOP nominees have posed about McCarthy and EPA. They include questions about the underlying data used to justify EPAs job-killing regulations, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement to POLITICO.
Heres how the New York Times editorial pages Robert B. Semple Jr. explains it:
full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/10/gop_boycott_of_epa_head_reaffirms_senate_is_archaic_embarrassment/
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GOP cabinet boycott reaffirms Senate is archaic embarrassment (Original Post)
DonViejo
May 2013
OP
modrepub
(3,467 posts)1. Would it surprise anyone her that McConnell's Request Violates the Law?
From EPA's recent revision of the SO2 National Ambient Air Quality Standard:
In setting standards that are requisite to protect public health and welfare, as provided in Section 109(b), the EPAs task is to establish standards that are neither more nor less stringent than necessary for these purposes. In doing, the EPA may not consider the costs of implementing the standards.
So basically the Clean Air Act (Section 109(b)) prohibits what the Representative from Ky is asking for; EPA can only establish standards based on health based analyses.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)2. The GOP is an archaic embarassment.
n/t