Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Internal Revenue Service Relating to ``Gross Proceeds Reporting By Brokers That Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales''

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues. You know, this issue of the environment is being completely--completely--ignored. Worse than that, the problems we have in our environment are being intensified by what the Trump administration is doing.

You know the EPA mission is clear. It is about protecting human health and the environment. EPA regulations are intended, in some cases, to prevent mercury--that is what I am talking about-- contaminating our drinking water. They protect us--some of those regulations--from toxic gases, soot, and ash polluting out of the air.

They keep lead out of our drinking water and asbestos out of our homes, and they do help fight climate change and prevent premature deaths caused by pollution.

Now, there is a mantra in the Trump administration that regulations are bad--bad. There is not a single Member of this Senate--and that includes every single Democrat--who is not willing to make the most efficient regulations we can have to do the job that needs to be done to protect the health and safety.

If there are regulations that need to be looked at, they need to be revised, they need to be reformed, let's do it. But the idea that the Federal Government would turn a blind eye to active pollution that is produced because it results in profit to the polluters is something not a single Member of this body should ever tolerate--ever, ever, ever.

What you are seeing from the administration is that the repeal of these regulations is not about improving them; it is about giving license to the polluters.

You know, Mr. President, shouldn't the polluter pay for the pollution that a polluter causes? Should large corporations have free rein to pollute our air and water, contaminating the environment, threatening the health and welfare of our kids?

The Trump administration is trying to decimate the Agency that has protected us and the environment since the 1970s. Let me just emphasize: It is not their intention to reform it or to improve it. It is to, basically, destroy it.

That is why the President has fired the members of EPA's Scientific Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. Get rid of the scientists is the answer they present as a way of getting rid of pollution. It doesn't work that way.

So as I said, I have absolutely not only no problem, but I am completely--completely--committed to doing anything I can to make regulations to be practical and effective. I am absolutely, adamantly opposed to giving polluters a free rein to make profit at the expense of the health and welfare of the people that I represent and that we all represent.

Nowhere is the Trump administration more clear than their attempt to rescind the endangerment finding, which affirms that greenhouse gases pose a threat to the health and welfare of the American people. That was a finding based on science

You know, it is one thing if you don't like the finding. It is another thing to deny that the finding has a solid basis in fact and science. You can pretend climate change doesn't exist. You can pretend dirty air doesn't exist. You can pretend dangerous water doesn't exist.

You won't be able to breathe it or drink it for too long without finding out that you are wrong. But when you are the President and you have a responsibility to the health and welfare of the American people, that is not a luxury you are entitled to take.

Firing the EPA scientists on the SAB and on the CASAC, that won't change the facts. You can fire the scientists, but you can't change the facts. But it is the preference of the administration to want to blatantly ignore those facts so they can follow through on the President's campaign promise and make it easier for the polluters to pollute.

Mr. President, I oppose--and oppose firmly--the Trump administration's attempts to weaken the EPA. I will always support making it more efficient, more effective, but the mission that the EPA has--an organization started during the Nixon administration--is to protect the health and welfare of the American people. And we can never step back from our commitment to do that.

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