Energy & Commerce Committee Approves Bills,
Sending Them to House Floor

Washington, DC – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, joined a majority of her Committee colleagues by voting for two bipartisan bills to create jobs and stop burdensome regulations: H.R. 2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, and H.R. 2681, the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act.

“There is a mindset in our nation’s capital that the best way to grow our economy is through more government spending,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers.  “But where we really need more spending is from America’s jobs creators – specifically, changing their spending from complying with government regulations to hiring new employees.  Whether it’s the Administration’s new energy regulations, new health care regulations, or new financial regulations, every dollar that a job creator has to spend complying with these new regulations is a dollar he could be using to create jobs.  Today’s bills will block costly, unnecessary job-killing regulations, unleash the power of American free enterprise, and get our economy moving again.”

H.R. 2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, provides regulatory relief to industries and organizations by directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reissue rules that are achievable in practice and less burdensome, consistent with President Obama’s Executive Order on Improving Regulation.  This bill protects over 200,000 jobs that EPA’s boiler rule puts at risk.

H.R. 2681, the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act, requires the EPA to set new emissions limits on cement manufacturing plants that are reasonable and achievable in the real world. As currently written, EPA’s cement rule threatens to shut down 20 percent of the nation’s cement manufacturing plants in the next two years, sending thousands of jobs permanently overseas.

These bills will now move to the House floor.