Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Mr. GRIFFITH of Virginia. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ladies and gentlemen, I knew that I was going to speak on this important legislation, and I tried to find the words that I would use this evening. And while I was attempting to do that, I came across a letter to the editor in the Virginian Leader in Giles County, Virginia, that was published yesterday, September 21, 2011, and sent in by John and Eleanor Kinney. They are described in their letter as an American blue collar worker. Neither Republican nor Democrat do they support. In that letter, I will quote parts of it, they say:

``I'm going to be very blunt with the following opinion: As a factory worker and taxpayer, I'm getting sick and tired of these Federal agencies who have nothing better to do except sit in their Washington offices and draw up rules and regulations to kill American jobs. Why don't they get off their sorry behinds and go out across this Nation and try to help industry save what jobs we have left? And who is paying these EPA people's salary? We are, the American workers. I believe in protecting the environment, but we can't shut the whole country down to achieve it.''

Mr. and Mrs. Kinney of Narrows, Virginia, go on:

``I hope that anyone who agrees will write, email, or call all of our elected officials in Washington, D.C. Tell them the EPA is not living in the real world, and that it's time to put some `regulations' on them and how they can dictate rules to what industry we are still hanging on to in this Nation. In a time of recession and Americans out of work, they should be helping industry, not trying to close what manufacturing base we have left with these idiotic rules and regulations.''

Hear, hear, Mr. and Mrs. Kinney. Hear, hear.

This bill that we are debating tonight does exactly what you asked us to do. We are doing your bidding, and the millions of Americans out there who feel the same way you do, that it's high time we put some regulations and some constraints on the regulators in Washington who don't know what it's like to have to work for a living, who don't know what it's like not knowing whether or not the particular business in your community is going to stay open.

These folks are particularly concerned in their discussion about a plant there in Giles County, one of the largest employers there that is in danger if we don't change some of the rules proposed by the EPA. They are concerned about announced layoffs in Giles County, Virginia, as a result of EPA regulations that will cause the power plant there at Glen Lyn to close down.

So, ladies and gentlemen, don't be fooled by the folks who say we are doing the bidding of Big Oil and Big Coal. We are doing the bidding of people like Mr. and Mrs. John and Eleanor Kinney.

I don't know the Kinneys, but I sure do look forward to getting to meet them, because that's the kind of people who made America great. And with a bill like this, we can continue to keep America great.

Source