2011 Scorecard Vote
Representative John Sullivan (R-OK) introduced H.R. 2401, the deceptively titled Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act of 2011 (TRAIN Act), requiring duplicative, biased, and unnecessary analyses of the costs--but not the benefits--of several EPA public health safeguards. Moreover, through last minute amendments adopted in committee and on the House floor, H.R. 2401 grew into the single biggest assault on the Clean Air Act in its more than 40-year history. This bill would allow for the indefinite delay of two life-saving clean air safeguards (the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants), meaning tens of thousands of lives would be lost and hundreds of thousands more asthma attacks would occur from increased air pollution. The bill would also require any future standards to be based on the most polluting power plants, and incorporate the Latta amendment (House roll call vote 738) that eliminates the health-based underpinning of the Clean Air Act. On September 23, the House passed H.R. 2401 by a vote of 249-169 (House roll call vote 741). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Senate has not acted on companion legislation, but on November 10, it rejected a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval that would have voided the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which is one of the two rules targeted by H.R. 2401 (Senate roll call vote 201).
pro-environment position