{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/newhouse-senator-lummis-introduce-legislation-overturn-burdensome", "Newhouse, Senator Lummis Introduce Legislation to Overturn Burdensome Environmental Justice Initiatives", "2024-08-02", "2024", "2024-08", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Dan Newhouse", "N000189", "newhouse.house.gov", "newhouse", "https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Today, Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse (WA-04) and Senate Western Caucus Chair Cynthia Lummis (WY) introduced the Reducing Environmental Gamesmanship (REGs) Act. This legislation prohibits federal agencies from implementing \u201cenvironmental justice\u201d standards unless expressly directed by Congress and nullifies two environmental justice executive orders.\n\n\u201c\u2018Environmental justice\u2019 is another ploy by extreme activists to block traditional energy and infrastructure projects and force a green transition,\u201d said Chairman Newhouse.\n\n\u201cThe reality is that if this agenda is put in place, the very low-income communities the left is claiming to help would be overburdened by higher energy costs. I\u2019m proud to partner with Senator Lummis to overturn the Biden Administration\u2019s environmental justice executive orders to help underserved communities and reclaim Congress\u2019 legislative authority post-Chevron doctrine.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Biden-Harris administration has made it crystal clear that it will do anything to appease its radical environmental base, even at the expense of Wyoming and the American west,\u201d said Chair Lummis.\n\nWyoming households continue to shell out record amounts of their hard-earned money to keep up with this administration\u2019s self-inflicted high energy costs at a time when they\u2019re already spending more to keep up with inflation. I am partnering with Rep. Newhouse to overturn this administration\u2019s radical agenda to ease the financial strain this administration has put on western communities and scale back the executive branch\u2019s self-awarded power.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nWithout direction from Congress, the Biden administration has decided that 40% of the funding from certain federal programs must go to \u201cdisadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.\u201d\n\nAgain, without Congressional direction, President Biden has said the \u201cpursuit of environmental justice is a duty of all executive branch agencies and that federal agencies should be taking action now to incorporate this charge into their missions.\u201d\n\nPrioritizing environmental justice over Congressional intent has only led to longer permitting delays and more red tape, delaying environmental cleanup activities.\n\nAs a prime example, the IIJA created a program for orphan well plugging with clear, set guidelines for eligibility. The bill says states may use funding to \u201cidentify and address any disproportionate burden of adverse human health or environmental effects of orphaned wells on disadvantaged communities, including communities of color, low-income communities, and Tribal and Indigenous communities.\u201d\n\nHowever, as part of its environmental justice initiative, the Department of the Interior requires states to meet that optional standard, in clear violation of Congressional intent and rendering the program infeasible for many states while delaying the cleanup of orphan wells.\n\nIn light of the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended the Chevron doctrine, Chairs Newhouse and Lummis introduced this legislation to reclaim Congress\u2019 authority.\n\nFull text of the bill can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:36:13Z"]], "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://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/newhouse-senator-lummis-introduce-legislation-overturn-burdensome"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.665019430220127, "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"}