A key plank in the Republican "Contract with America" is "regulatory reform" legislation including "risk assessment" and "cost-benefit" components. Science Committee Chairman Robert Walker (R-PA) and Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, Jr. (R-VA) sponsored "reform" legislation, H.R. 1022, which purportedly would streamline bureaucratic procedures, but actually would set up a new series of procedural and analytical roadblocks before agencies can put forward environmental regulations. On the other hand, agency actions to approve pesticides, for example, would be exempt from these requirements. In addition, industries resisting new safeguards could lodge legal challenges to the agency's cost and risk assessments, potentially adding years of delay. Some of the most egregious provisions in H.R. 1022 also can be found in Senator Robert Dole's bill, S. 343, described on page 10.

On February 28, 1995, the House approved H.R. 1022, 286 - 141. NO is the pro-environment vote.