'Corruption, Plain And Simple: Jeff Merkley Accuses GOP Of Undoing CA Waivers For Oil Industry

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) spoke about the Republicans bypassing the Senate Parliamentarian to undo California's Clean Air Act waivers.

Transcript

00:00Colleagues, using the Congressional Review Act to overturn waivers puts polluters in

00:10charge of government policy.

00:13In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act.

00:18The law explicitly states that individual states, like California, can enact stricter

00:26emission standards to protect the environment if they receive from the Environmental Protection

00:31Agency a waiver, and states like Oregon can adopt those standards if they so choose.

00:41Since then, California has applied for, well, about 100 waivers.

00:47They have made vehicle emissions 99% cleaner than they were in 1970.

00:55I remember going down to Southern California in the early 80s and seeing how incredibly

01:03polluted the air was near LA, and I thought, how can anyone live here?

01:08It hurts your eyes, it hurts your lungs.

01:11People have that impression today, despite the amount of vehicle miles going way up, because

01:16of the incredible efforts California made to clean up their air from auto emissions.

01:23You know, in the last 50 years, California has never had a waiver revoked.

01:30That tells me they put together very competent proposals, and that the nation supported their

01:35effort to clean up their air.

01:38But something different is happening right now.

01:42Senate Republicans are using the Congressional Review Act in ways that Congress never intended.

01:48And, of course, the Congressional Review Act says if a rule is implemented, and you're within

01:5460 legislative days, it can be brought to the floor and it can be overturned by the House

02:00and Senate.

02:01And then if it's vetoed, well, then the House and Senate can overturn the veto if they have

02:08enough votes.

02:08But all about rules.

02:11No mention of waivers.

02:13Both the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Parliamentarian say the Congressional

02:19Review Act cannot be used to overturn waivers, because, quite simply, they're not rules.

02:27You know, here is the thing.

02:31Words have meanings, and you can only trust the law if those words are honored.

02:38And to magically say a waiver is a rule is a real travesty of lawmaking.

02:50But that's where we're at now.

02:53So what is this really all about, this Republican decision to invent new meanings to existing words,

02:59every bit of common sense and every bit of legal knowledge, knows that that's a lie.

03:06Why did my colleagues engage in this massive deception?

03:11It's an end run around the policymaking process.

03:15They could have easily said, we want to expand the Congressional Review Act to cover waivers.

03:23And then you simply craft a bill, Republicans being in charge of the Senate and the House.

03:30They bring it to the floor.

03:32We debate it.

03:33It either passes or it doesn't pass.

03:35It has the advantage of going through committee and being considered and having people weigh in

03:41on whether it's a good idea or not.

03:43We have to simply reinvent and pretend, if you will, that the color black is the color white

03:50or an orange is an apple because everyone understands a waiver is not a rule.

03:58So it's unfortunate that the colleagues in charge of the legislative process have so corrupted

04:06it yesterday and today.

04:10Not even trying to actually enact a law to accomplish what they want.

04:16Instead saying, let's use an expedited process that doesn't go through committee, where there

04:22is very limited debate, where there are no amendments allowed in order to do a favor for a powerful

04:30special interest.

04:32What does that tell us about government in the United States?

04:35My colleagues are choosing to be the agents for the powerful by inventing new meanings

04:44to words that don't exist, meanings that are not supported by the parliamentarian, they're

04:48not supported by the General Accounting Office, Government Accounting Office, GAO, because they

04:55are so dedicated to pulling the strings of government on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.

05:04That is corruption, plain and simple, on full display before the American public.

05:12That's what's happened.

05:15Think about what this means for the future of this nation.

05:22You can't count on a waiver staying in place.

05:27So how do you make decisions based on getting that waiver?

05:31Or you get a license from the government.

05:33But a license, hmm, maybe that looks a lot like a rule.

05:36It's an act of government.

05:37It's a decision.

05:38How is that different than a waiver?

05:39You can't count on that license not being taken away by this body.

05:45What about a grant?

05:46A grant is a government decision, kind of like a waiver except it has money accompanying it.

05:52So now a grant can be brought here to the floor and wiped out.

05:57What about a permit?

05:59A permit is very close to being a waiver, saying, hey, you can undertake this process, we're giving

06:06you permission.

06:07Well, that's what a waiver does, it says, yes, you can undertake that process.

06:12So now, no one has a foundation for pursuing projects because they know that if the majority

06:23wants to play favors for a powerful special interest, they can wipe you out with no foundation

06:29of law.

06:31That's what happened here.

06:35And that is a travesty.

06:37It's a travesty that none of my colleagues, I would hope if they reflected on it, outside

06:44the pressure of having their arms twisted, would engage in.

06:49And I know they would be highly critical if the parties were reversed.

06:55In addition, once that waiver is struck down, it's suggested under the rules of the CRA that

07:07a similar waiver might not be able to be granted in the future.

07:11So now you have two laws in conflict with each other.

07:14One law says you can grant the waiver.

07:16The other law says if something was struck down through the CRA, nothing similar can be

07:20done.

07:21How are we to resolve this?

07:27My colleagues have no answer.

07:29They've taken us down a path where words have no meaning and where sheer power by one

07:38of the richest enterprises in America, the fossil fuel industry, is all that matters.

07:42They are the puppet masters of my Republican colleagues.

07:47They have pulled the strings.

07:50And now we are in deep trouble to have an honest foundation for legislative action.

07:59This one waiver was something that the fossil fuel industry really hated because when cars

08:05became more efficient, they used less oil.

08:08And therefore the oil companies made more money.

08:13When these waivers were enacted, people were incentivized to buy cars that didn't even burn

08:18gasoline.

08:19And the oil companies were like, oh my goodness, we're not going to make as much money.

08:22Help us, help us, dear Republicans.

08:24Help us out here.

08:26Invent something.

08:27Change the meaning of some words.

08:29Find some way to go past the normal legislative process to somehow deliver what we want.

08:36And my colleagues obliged.

08:40The damage is done.

08:41It's going to be extremely difficult to fix it.

08:45It's eviscerated half a century of California's clean air protections.

08:52It was the wrong thing to do to blow up the good work of a state seeking to solve its air

08:57pollution problem.

08:59It was absolutely the wrong thing to do to blow up the integrity of this body by deciding

09:07a waiver is a rule and undermining the ability of any group to act with confidence based on

09:14decisions made by the government of the United States.

09:17Because whether you have a waiver, or you have a permit, or you have a license, now you don't

09:23know whether some powerful interest is going to have this body rip it away from you.

09:31Let's work together to reestablish integrity in this chamber.

09:36Integrity in our legislative process that was so badly damaged yesterday and last night.

09:44Thank you, Mr. President.

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