Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) sponsored S. 1786, the Long-Term Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2011, which is a sweeping and extreme assault on our government's ability to protect the public from a wide range of threats, ranging from pollution to workplace safety.  While framed as a transportation bill, this legislation actually includes S. 299, the REINS Act--a radical assault on our system of public protections--as well as a host of provisions undermining specific bedrock public health and environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.  The bill would stop the EPA from cleaning up harmful pollution such as mercury, soot, smog, arsenic, lead, and carbon dioxide from some of our nation's biggest polluters, including power plants, cement plants, and industrial boilers and incinerators.  On November 2, the Senate rejected a motion to proceed to the consideration of S. 1786 by a vote of 47-53 (Senate roll call vote 196).  NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.  The House has passed numerous pieces of legislation that are part of S. 1786, including H.R. 10--the House version of the REINS Act--on December 7 (House roll call vote 901).