House GOP's Anti-Regulatory Docket

Here’s a glimpse at the House Republicans’ antiregulatory docket spelled out for upcoming weeks and months in a memo sent out on Monday to GOP members by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

(MORE: House Republican Fall Agenda Takes Aim at Regulations, Taxes)

While Cantor’s memo described these as the “top 10 job-destroying regulations”—and even provides specific weeks or broader time frames for when the House GOP majority will target each of them—efforts to block or undo them are certain to draw opposition from the Obama administration and many congressional Democrats.

• Week of September 12: The National Labor Relations Board’s complaint against Boeing regarding the alleged transfer of an assembly line from Washington state to South Carolina. A bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., would prevent the NLRB from ordering any employer to close, relocate, or transfer employment “under any circumstance."
• Week of September 19: The Environmental Protection Agency’s “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT) standards and cross-state air-pollution rule for utility plants. A bill sponsored by Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla., would delay the final dates for both rules until an economic analysis and study of the “full impact” of the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda.
• Week of October 3: New EPA MACT rules pertaining to boilers, including those used by factories, hospitals, colleges, and other businesses. A bill sponsored by Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., would provide a legislative “stay” on four rules issued by the EPA in March. The legislation would also provide the EPA with at least 15 months to re-propose and finalize new versions “that do not destroy jobs, and provide employers with an extended compliance period.”
• Also the week of October 3: An EPA rule known as the “cement MACT” and two other related rules that are expected to impact about 100 cement plants with new requirements, which Republicans say will send jobs offshore. A bill sponsored by Sullivan would provide a legislative stay of these three rules and provide EPA with at least 15 months to re-propose and finalize new versions.
• October-November: So-called “coal-ash” rules that affect such industries as concrete production and manufacturing of wallboard. A bill sponsored by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., would instead create an enforceable minimum standard for the regulation of coal ash by the states, allowing their use in a safe manner that Republicans say will protect jobs.
• November-December: New health care law restrictions involving previously protected or “grandfathered” health care plans that Republicans say will force the loss of many small-employer plans, causing businesses to face increased costs. The Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Workforce committees “will soon be working on legislation to repeal these ObamaCare restrictions,” wrote Cantor.
• Winter: Any readjustment of the Ozone Rule. Republicans complain that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is pushing for a “premature readjustment of the current ozone standards,” to increase the number of areas dubbed as not meeting air-quality standards, and which must implement plans to meet those standards. The new readjustment rule is expected early this fall, Cantor wrote, “and I expect the Energy and Commerce Committee to act swiftly to prevent its implementation, in order to protect American jobs.”
• Winter: EPA revised standards regarding farm-dust particulate matter, which Cantor writes are anticipated soon. A bill sponsored by Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., would establish a one-year prohibition against revising any national ambient air-quality standard applicable to coarse particulate matter and limiting federal regulation of dust where it is already regulated under state and local laws.
• Winter: Upcoming EPA greenhouse-gas new source performing standards, which Cantor’s memo says will impact all new and existing oil, natural-gas, and coal-fired power plants, as well as oil refineries, nationwide. Cantor said he expects the Energy and Commerce Committee to move swiftly as well in the coming months on this matter “to protect American jobs and consumers.”
• Winter: In light of an NLRB notice of a proposed rule regarding union election procedures, Cantor said the House also will consider legislation that will “protect the interests of both employers and their workers.”

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