Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman very much, and I appreciate my colleague for introducing this amendment.

He is absolutely right. The Clean Air Act never gave the EPA this authority. They just created it out of thin air.

Their rationale is kind of interesting, because they took the authority that said that they could regulate new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines, and then the definition of new motor vehicle meaning any self-propelled vehicle designed for transporting persons or properties on a street or highway, and applied it to trailers. They are not self-propelled.

When I asked Janet McCabe, who was the Acting Director of the Air Division of the EPA, when she came in front of the Energy and Commerce Committee how in the world could they do this, and I presumed she wasn't a lawyer and she said: Well, yes, I am.

I was surprised, because the language is pretty clear. They don't have the ability to do that.

She said: Well, you can't haul any goods if the trailer is not attached to a truck.

That is not in the code. The code says that they only have authority over self-propelled vehicles. They created this out of whole cloth.

It doesn't make any sense to allow an agency to create law. That is our job, and I told her that that day.

I said: Look, you think this needs to be changed, bring in a bill, and we will discuss it.

They have never done that. They don't have authority. We shouldn't fund something that is clearly illegal based on the plain English reading of the terms.

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