Speak out! The Regulatory Accountability Act stalls public health regulations making them impossible to enforce.

Want these guys making decisions on what public health protections to enforce? 

Many in Congress make no secret of their nearly single-minded focus on gutting commonsense public health protections. But on May 17 they’re set to kick their efforts into overdrive—and we can’t let them succeed.

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will take up a half-dozen bills attacking the very way all federal safeguards and regulations are created. The most dangerous of these is the so-called “Regulatory Accountability Act”—an innocuous-sounding bill that’s really a giant gift to corporate polluters and an enormous threat to public health and safety.

This bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, designed to do one thing: bury agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency in endless red tape and cripple their ability to enact safeguards to protect our communities and environment.

This isn’t some abstract debate—this is about the safety of the cars we drive, the water we drink, the toys our kids play with, and the places where we work. This bill would make it extremely difficult—if not downright impossible in some cases—to adequately protect public health and safety. It would stack the deck in favor of polluters and big corporations,both in the rule-making process and in the courtroom.

Major public protections might not have happened had the “Regulatory Accountability Act” been law, such as a 2011 EPA rule that created the first national standards to protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and toxic air pollution such as arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide. That rule is estimated to save 11,000 lives a year and prevent 130,000 cases of childhood asthma.

We will be fighting this bill and the rest of the “dirty bundle” every step of the way—but we need you at our side.

Time to stand up and speak out: Tell your senator on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to oppose the dangerous Regulatory Accountability Act and bills like it, and share a personal story about why environmental protections and fighting this bill are important to you, your family and your community.

- Brielle Green. Associate Legislative Counsel, Earth Justice


TAKE ACTION! Stop gutting public health protections