FASTER PACE OF FINANCIAL DEREGULATION:

Voting 264 for and 143 against, the House on March 6 passed a bill (HR 4607) that would give federal regulators more opportunities to discard financial rules and scale back the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under present law, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Comptroller of the Currency must review financial regulations every 10 years and eliminate those judged to be obsolete. This bill would require reviews every seven years and expand them to cover the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and National Credit Union Administration as well as depository institutions.

Scott Tipton, R-Colo., said, “By requiring regulators to more frequently review and tailor regulations, this bill will help put Main Street back on the path to prosperity.”

Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said the bill does “absolutely nothing to strengthen protections for consumers where there might be deficiencies or gaps in our regulatory framework.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Bruce Westerman, R-4

TEXAS

Voting yes: John Ratcliffe, R-4

Not voting: Louie Gohmert, R-1

CALL FOR TRUMP FAMILY DISCLOSURES:

Voting 182 for and 228 against, the House on March 6 defeated a bid by Democrats to require public disclosure of any rollback of regulations under HR 4607 (above) that would yield personal financial benefits to President Trump or his family members.

Kathleen Clark, D-Mass., said Americans “need to have confidence that their government is working not to enrich a president and his family and wealthy friends.”

Blaine Leutkemeyer, R-Mo., said the measure “is way out of line, and I don’t think we need to waste any more time on it.”

A yes vote was to adopt the disclosure requirement.

ARKANSAS

Voting no: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting no: Ratcliffe Not voting: Gohmert

CLEAN-AIR RULES FOR BRICK MANUFACTURING:

Voting 234 for and 180 against, the House on March 7 passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 1917) that would indefinitely delay a Clean Air Act rule to curb hazardous emissions from the manufacture of bricks, structural clay products and clay ceramics. More than 16 years in the making, the rule would reduce toxic discharges nationwide by an estimated 375 tons per year. But critics called it a federal overreach that would shut down small operations and eliminate many jobs. The rule targets emissions of hydrogen flouride, hydrogen chloride and hazardous metals that the Environmental Protection Administration says are linked to illnesses such as cancer and asthma. In addition, the bill would postpone from 2020 to 2023 the effective date of an EPA rule to reduce air pollution from wood-fueled heaters.

Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, said, “Brick manufacturers have suffered heavy losses since the recession, shedding 45 percent of jobs between 2005 and 2012, and these increased compliance costs from EPA regulations are driving more job losses and consolidations within this primarily familyindustry.”

Donald McEachin, D-Va., said, “every human being has the right to breathe clean air. If this Congress trammels that right in the name of corporate profits, that choice is not just an abstract moral failure, it is a concrete public health disaster, one that will cause needless suffering, especially for our most vulnerable friends and neighbors.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting yes: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

SCOTT PRUITT’S FIRST-CLASS TRAVEL:

Voting 186 for and 227 against, the House on March 7 defeated a bid by Democrats to stipulate there is no authority in HR 1917 (above) for Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Administration, “to charter a flight or travel in any class of air accommodation above coach class” while on official business. This followed public disclosures that Pruitt and aides accompanying him spent about $197,000 on first-class tickets and chartered flights between March and August last year, including $1,641 to fly Pruitt from Washington, D.C., to New York City in June in a first-class seat. The House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform is probing Pruitt’s travel costs.

Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said the motion “goes to the heart of the costly ethical violations by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his penchant for flying first class in violation of federal regulations and billing it to taxpayers.”

John Shimkus, R-Ill., called the motion “just purely politics because Democrats want to (distract) us from (the) economic success of the Republican agenda.”

A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

ARKANSAS

Voting no: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting no: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

CLEAN-AIR RULES FOR BURNING WASTE COAL:

Voting 215 for and 189 against, the House on March 8 passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 1119) that would provide power plants that burn coal refuse from abandoned mines with relief from federal air-quality standards for pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid. The bill would mainly benefit five plants in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia by enabling them to meet weaker emissions standards. And it would bar the Environmental Protection Administration from strengthening coal-refuse standards even when control technologies improve. Backers said the bill was pro-environment in that it would help utilities burn off millions of tons of waste coal that now sits in piles, fouling the air and leaching into streams. Opponents said it would shift coal-refuse pollution from land to air and then to waterways, drinking water, fish and human consumption.

Coal refuse contains lower BTU combustion values and higher concentrations of pollutants, including lead, mercury, chromium and arsenic than are found in normal coal. Most of the 19 electricity-generating plants that use it as their main source of fuel are located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., said the bill is needed because “inflexible EPA regulations threaten five plants in western Pennsylvania and West

Virginia” and “would leave hundreds of millions of dollars of vital cleanup unfinished, lead to job losses and leave many localities exposed to the harmful conditions waste-coal piles pose.”

Michael Doyle, D-Pa., said, “This bill says, let’s sacrifice our air quality and the air quality of states downwind, and let’s give these plants a pass. Let’s sacrifice progress for a few companies’ convenience, and let’s stick it to those companies that have already invested in upgrading their plants, and let’s do this forever.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting yes: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

The Senate on March 6 voted, 67 for and 32 against, to open debate on a bipartisan bill (S 2155) that would largely exempt community banks and credit unions from the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-oversight law while scaling back restrictions the law placed on about 15 of the largest U.S. banks and 25 medium-sized regional banks.

John Kennedy, R-La., said the bill is designed to help smaller financial institutions that “lend to farms, mom-and-pop businesses and homeowners. They are not hedge fund managers. They are not playing the margins. Yet the small banks are the ones that are suffocating under the weight of Dodd-Frank’s 20,000 pages of regulations.”

Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the bill repeats history. “It is what we have seen in the last 10 years. It is what we have seen since the Great Depression seven decades ago. The big banks always want more, and it is always at the expense of everyone else. This legislation gives them exactly what they want.”

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Tom Cotton, R, John Boozman, R

TEXAS

Voting yes: John Cornyn, R, Ted Cruz, R

KEY VOTES AHEAD

The House in the week of March 12 will take up a bill providing resources for school-safety measures to counter gun violence, and the Senate will complete work on a financial-deregulation bill.