[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 9 (Monday, January 24, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H400]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, as one who is firmly in the camp of 
not just supporting the benefits but the necessity of government 
regulation, I nonetheless welcomed the President's recent op-ed in the 
Wall Street Journal and his executive order to review the regulations 
we have in place.
  This is a unique opportunity to reframe at least part of the 
regulatory debate to satisfy both sides and better serve the public. 
The area of opportunity lies in creating a new generation of 
environmental protections that are performance based. Pioneering 
efforts to protect the environment, like the Clean Air Act and the 
Clean Water Act, were regulatory based that worked well for their time. 
Public health requirements, citizen expectations have evolved. 
Subsequent efforts have become more difficult, expensive, and time 
consuming.
  Having these agencies dictate specifics is not necessarily providing 
the most innovative, timely, nor cost-effective solutions.
  There is an alternative to rules-based procedures, command-and-
control rules process. Such a model would give latitude to parties on 
how they comply with the standards for protection as long as they met 
or exceeded the requirement.
  In Oregon, we were able, some years ago, in partnership with the EPA 
and the State Department of Environmental Quality, to work with a major 
industrial presence in our community, Intel, on a plant expansion where 
latitude was granted for air quality compliance. The company made an 
enforceable commitment to the requisite clean air and environmental 
regulations, but the environmental agent regulators did not micromanage 
how the company complied. The result? Clean air with less cost and 
time.
  There are countless opportunities for this principle to save time, 
money, and create innovation, and importantly, the potential to reduce 
opposition to the regulatory process itself: building trust and 
confidence, partnerships between the regulator and the regulated with 
more control, more flexibility, producing a cleaner, safer environment.
  This requires first and foremost an administration that can be 
trusted to act in good faith because too often, regulatory reform is a 
tactic of those who are simply opposed to the regulation in its first 
instance.

                              {time}  1210

  This approach will only invite fierce opposition to watered-down 
protection. The Obama administration has established its environmental 
credentials and should be able to avoid, or at least lay to rest, that 
sort of concern.
  There are two other necessary elements. The standards must be clear, 
and the parties must be both responsible and have the capacity to be 
held accountable. Nothing must allow the protection in question to be 
undercut. Indeed, it may be reasonable for performance-based approaches 
to require higher standards and environmental protection. And we 
certainly don't have to suspend current rules or regulations. Just give 
an alternative path for compliance that we can always fall back upon if 
people fall short.
  Once it's clear that we can produce the environmental or other 
desired protections on a performance basis, perhaps we can tackle 
redundant regulatory processes. For instance, California has arguably 
more stringent environmental regulations than the United States 
Government itself. Can we figure out a way to apply that single, more 
stringent standard rather than forcing individuals, government agencies 
to comply with both?
  In sum, it's always helpful for an administration to make sure our 
efforts at government regulation are effective and relevant. By all 
means, eliminate the unnecessary or the ineffective. What is more 
important, however, is to usher in a new era of performance-based 
protections to improve regulations, save money, and protect the public 
welfare.

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