Virgin Islands Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett in a press release issued on Tuesday said she was rallying against the use of taxpayer funding to establish a partisan, unelected commission with subpoena powers to usurp the authority of Congress and jeopardize public health.<\/p>\n
H.R. 998, the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act of 2017, proposes to use $30 million in taxpayer funding to establish a commission with unlimited subpoena authority to review federal agency rules and make recommendations to Congress on which rules should be eliminated, according to a release from Ms. Plaskett’s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis legislation is nothing more than a clandestine attempt to advance corporate interests at taxpayer expense,” she said. “It will take regulatory review out of the hands of subject-matter experts and place it with a partisan commission appointed by the president.<\/p>\n
“At best, this bill will increase bureaucracy and waste money. Congress already has the authority to review agency rules for repeal. At worst, it will severely jeopardize public health and safety, as it would impose a \u201ccut-go\u201d provision in which an agency would have to repeal an existing rule and be forced to provide a cost offset to issue a new rule, even in the case of public health or national security emergencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill is a shameful display of Republican hypocrisy. Chairman Chaffetz, who has fast tracked this bill with no real review out of oversight has been adamantly opposed to increasing cost in the federal government.\u00a0 He now sees it fit to do so at a cost of $30 Million.\u00a0The goal of reducing the burden of red tape on small businesses is one that I share.\u00a0 However, House leaders have usurped this bi-partisan goal to produce a bill that they know cannot receive bi-partisan support because it will inhibit agencies from doing their most basic functions, even in the case of an emergency or threat to public health. This Congress has money to throw at solutions in search of a problem, but requires cost offsets to provide aid for victims of the Flint Water Crisis or toward Zika funding,” the congresswoman said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Plaskett\u2019s amendment would eliminate the use of tax dollars for the establishment and function of the SCRUB Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Virgin Islands Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett in a press release issued on Tuesday said she was rallying against the use of taxpayer funding to establish a partisan, unelected commission with subpoena powers to usurp the authority of Congress and jeopardize public health. H.R. 998, the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[191,147],"tags":[1335],"yoast_head":"\n