EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the sponsor of the legislation, the gentleman from Utah, for the excellent job that he has done in preparing this legislation and bringing it to the body.

If you were to go with me into my district in Tennessee--19 counties, 10,000 square miles--one of the things that you would hear in every community discussion is a certain amount of disdain for Federal agencies.

Now, we all expect we are going to hear about not liking the IRS, but the number one agency in my district to dislike, to be frustrated with, to want to get control of, to reform is the EPA, and that is because whether you are a small business owner or a painter or a manufacturer or a farmer who is growing food to go on the table, you get hassled by the EPA with all sorts of frivolous and nonsensical rules and regulations and interpretations.

Quite frankly, the American people are tired of it, and they look at us and they say, ``Tell me what you are going to do about it.''

Now, Mr. Speaker, today is a day that, yes, indeed, we can do something about this and a component of it, the Science Advisory Board--isn't it so interesting that these agencies create this tangled web of different boards and advisory capacities, and it is all to insulate their cronies, and it is all to help them shield millions of taxpayer dollars, money coming out of the pockets of hardworking taxpayers, that are going to their cronies, who are receiving these grants.

The American people are saying, ``Stop it. Get it under control. Get a handle on this.'' This is one of the ways that we do it.

The chairman has spoken eloquently about the membership and the makeup of the Science Advisory Board, the cronyism that is taking place there, and the need for it to stop, the ability to have these conflicts of interest brought out of smoke-filled rooms and moved

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into the transparency of sunlight and knowledge of the American people. It is a great disinfectant. It is time for it to be put on the EPA, and certainly, H.R. 1422 is a great way to go about that.
We wouldn't even be here discussing this today and there would be no need at all for H.R. 1422 if the EPA were to follow their own peer-review handbook, but I guess Grubergate has gone governmentwide. What we are seeing is they are all trying to find ways to squirrel this away and to hide and to not have that transparency.

It is time to pass this legislation. It is time to bring transparency to the process.

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