Foreign Emissions and Nonattainment Clarification for Economic Stability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Pallone for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition of the FENCES Act.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about protecting public health and the environment and without sacrificing environmental protection in this country, but I want to point out that it is this administration currently in office that has eviscerated the EPA. Time after time, we have seen these bills filed that are intended to weaken our environmental protection.

Let me be clear about what the FENCES Act actually does. It weakens the Clean Air Act. It removes the EPA's ability to hold States accountable when they fail to reduce air pollution, and it gives polluters a free pass in communities that can least afford it.

I represent Houston, Texas. In my district, environmental justice is not a talking point; it is a reality that people wake up to each and every day.

We have communities that have some of the highest concentrations of industrial pollution in the entire country: communities with more than five polluting facilities in a 2-mile radius, cancer clusters, high rates of lung disease and heart disease, lower life expectancies, children and seniors breathing in some of the most contaminated air in America.

These communities don't need us here in Washington making it worse. I know firsthand what happens when you take the pressure off of State environmental regulators.

Before I came to Congress, I served as the chief legal officer for Harris County, the largest county in Texas. I watched the State's environmental regulators look the other way when pollution ran rampant in underserved communities.

They sat on cancer clusters. They let polluting facilities concentrate in neighborhoods that had no political power to fight back, and they handed passes to industry while residents got sick. I had to sue them to get them to act, but that is not how our government should work.

The Federal Government has to hold these folks accountable when they put industry over people and put our communities' health at risk, but this bill would add yet another obstacle to holding those in power accountable.

Here is what the FENCES Act actually does. Under current law, States already get credit when pollution blows in from other countries or from out of State. They are not penalized for pollution that they cannot control. That protection exists today.

This bill doesn't fix a gap. It tears open a new one. It expands that exemption so broadly that States can point to foreign pollution as a reason to stop making progress on air quality altogether.

It removes the EPA's ability to hold them accountable. It is a built- in excuse to look the other way. State regulators and polluters both know exactly how to exploit it, and they will.

That is why I tried to change this bill by submitting an amendment. It said one simple thing: that before this law takes effect, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must certify that the impacts will not harm children and the elderly. That is it. Prove that this is safe for our kids and our seniors before it takes effect.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle blocked it. They would not allow that vote. They couldn't say yes to that because this bill was never about clean air. It is about giving corporate polluters cover while the people in our districts pay with their health.

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Mr. MENEFEE. Over 100 million Americans already live in counties with unhealthy air quality. Air pollution contributes to more than 100,000 premature deaths in this country each and every year. The people in our communities are not abstractions. They are already on the wrong side of these numbers.

This body lets pollution run rampant as our communities see poison in the wind that blows and wonder ``Where did all the blue skies go?''

We should be standing up to make sure that every single person in our communities has clean land, clean air, and clean water, regardless of their ZIP Code or socioeconomic status.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the FENCES Act.

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