{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://clayhiggins.house.gov/2024/12/27/higgins-introduces-legislation-to-abolish-epa-return-authority-to-the-states/", "Higgins Introduces Legislation to Abolish EPA, Return Authority to the States", "2024-12-27", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Clay Higgins", "H001077", "clayhiggins.house.gov", "clayhiggins", "https://clayhiggins.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) announced the introduction of the Sovereign State Environmental Quality Assurance Act (SSEQAA), which would abolish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and authorize funding directly to each state\u2019s environmental quality agency.\n\nSSEQAA authorizes funding directly to the sovereign states at a baseline equating to 70% of 2019 EPA funding levels. The bill would:\n\nAuthorize no more than $4.4 billion each year for four years to be divided proportionately to each state based upon the most recent decennial census.\n\nAllocate up to $880 million each year for four years to establish and staff a new office within the U.S. Treasury to administer and audit the disbursement of environmental protection funds to the states.\n\nDirect a study on the efficacy of the bill and require an annual report of findings to Congress.\n\nRequire Congressional reauthorization each four years.\n\nReduce federal spending by an estimated $60-80 billion over 10 years.\n\nRestore Tenth Amendment authority to the states.\n\n\u201cFedGov has unconstitutionally weaponized federal agencies like the EPA against the American people and American industry,\u201d said Congressman Higgins. \u201cThe EPA\u2019s regulatory oppression has unjustly penalized our farmers, petrochemical industry, energy producers, and American families. My SSEQAA legislation abolishes the EPA, restores environmental protection authority to the sovereign states, and saves tens of billions in taxpayer dollars. This bill and several others will be reintroduced in the first legislative days of 2025, and I have introduced SSEQAA in the final days of the 118th Congress as a fair warning to the entire deep state bureaucracy that the 119th Congress will force serious reform upon DC.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://clayhiggins.house.gov/2024/12/27/higgins-introduces-legislation-to-abolish-epa-return-authority-to-the-states/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.539778895676136, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}