Republican regulatory rollback

Hundreds of existing public health, labor, environmental and other regulations could be eliminated, and future ones blocked, under three Republican bills now making their way through Congress.

For example, one of the bills, the Midnight Rules Reform Act, takes aim at three recent rules:

Overtime pay:

This new Department of Labor rule would extend overtime pay requirements to 4.2 million American workers. President Obama ordered the department in 2014 to update the overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The new rule was set to take effect last month, but was blocked by a federal judge in Texas.

Stream rule:

The Interior Department has been working on a rule since 2009 to limit pollution of streams from coal mining that involves the removal of mountaintops. The regulation is set to take effect Jan. 19. The rule requires companies “to avoid mining practices that permanently pollute streams, destroy drinking water sources, increase flood risk, and threaten forests” and mandates restoration of areas already mined. Republicans and Democrats from coalmining states call the rule part of the “war on coal.”

Methane rule:

The Environmental Protection Agency released its first-ever rule in May limiting emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide, from new oil and gas operations. The agency also set in motion procedures to reduce emissions from existing operations. The goal is to reduce such emissions by 40 to 45 percent by 2012. Widely loathed by the oil and gas industry, the methane rule is a key element of Obama’s climate-change agenda.