Newsletter: Babin Bulletin

Statement

Babin Questions EPA's Extreme New Ozone Standards

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy recently wrote that her agency's new air standards "attract new businesses, new investment, and new jobs." Ms. McCarthy is clearly not living in the same world as the rest of us. These rules promise to be the most expensive regulations in U.S. history, likely costing us thousands of jobs. It's simply bureaucratic overreach in the extreme!

At this past week's House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing, I asked the witnesses if they thought these regulations were worth putting American jobs at risk and they described how similar regulations have shuttered factories and pushed American jobs overseas.

Woodville District Office Open House

We recently held an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony at our Woodville District Office to welcome area residents and highlight the many services offered by our congressional office. This follows the openings of our offices in Deer Park and Orange. Providing quality constituent services is our top goal and our team is here to listen and assist in any way we can. We work under an open door policy and welcome any opportunity to help. Please visit us at the Tyler County Court House on 100 W. Bluff Drive, or call us at (844) 303-8934.

Prioritizing NASA's Human Space Flight Program Over Global Warming Research

I spoke on the House floor this past week to voice my support for reprioritizing NASA's budget to advance its core mission -- human space flight. For the past several years, U.S. taxpayers have been paying over $70 million a person to launch U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station on Russian vehicles from Russian soil. Our amendment was aimed at moving NASA funding from global warming research to human space flight. There are more than a dozen federal agencies doing global warming research and growing that budget within NASA undermines the success of our human space flight program. It's time to end our reliance on the Russians and begin launching American astronauts on American vehicles from American soil. Investing in the Commercial Crew program, which is managed out of Johnson Space Center, aids the development of U.S. human space flight capabilities and lays the foundation for future commercial transportation.

House Passes Legislation to Strengthen Commercial and Recreational Fishing

On Monday, the House passed the Strengthening Fishing Communities & Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act (H.R. 1335), which reauthorizes and reforms the Magnuson-Stevens Act - the primary federal law that governs America's marine fisheries. I voted for this bipartisan legislation, which meets the needs of our local fisherman by:

* Increasing flexibility for Regional Fishery Management Councils and providing stability for fishermen.
* Basing stock rebuilding on science instead of arbitrary deadlines.
* Tailors catch limits to the needs of fishing communities.
* Increases transparency and oversight of National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
* Protects confidentiality of information collected and privacy of fisherman.
* Improves collection of recreational fishing data to improve management and maximize access for the recreational industry.

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