CONYERS, BOOKER & CICILLINE Introduce Bill To Repeal Congressional Review Act

Republicans have abused law to roll back health, environmental, and consumer protections, while benefiting special interests

WASHINGTON – Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member JohnConyers, Jr. (D-MI), U.S. Congressman David N. Cicilline (D-RI), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a bill to repeal the Congressional Review Act, a measure Republicans have exploited this year to overturn public health, environmental, and consumer protections while advancing special interests.  

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“From stripping the privacy rights of American consumers to repealing women’s healthcare protections, President Trump has recklessly used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to abolish fourteen critical protections for hardworking Americans without a single hearing or markup,” Cicilline said. “Rather than keep his promise to protect American workers, President Trump has repealed guarantees that federal contractors actually comply with the law—including workers’ wage, safety, and civil rights protections—before receiving new contracts, along with rules to provide economic security to retirees. There can be no mistake that this for-profit President has no interest in putting people ahead of corporate profits. I am introducing the SCRAP Act to repeal the CRA once and for all so that this never happens again and to provide agencies with fast-track authority to reinstate the rules that have been repealed through the CRA by President Trump.”

The CRA allows Congress to quickly overturn recently issued agency rules – many of which were years or decades in the making – by bypassing Congress’s regular lawmaking process. Once a rule is reversed by the CRA, an agency can never reissue a substantially similar rule unless specifically authorized to do so under a new law.

Since February, Republicans have used the CRA to roll back a wide range of public health, environmental, and consumer protections, benefiting special interests by making it easier for internet providers to collect users’ personal information, making it easier for businesses to hide workplace dangers from workers, and making it easier for states to discriminate against family planning providers, to name just a few examples.

“Abuse of the CRA has allowed Congressional Republicans to fast track the repeal of a host of protections that benefit everyday Americans with little notice or public debate,” Booker added. “President Trump and Republicans are misusing this legislative mechanism to reward special interests and big corporations at the expense of consumers, working families, and the environment."

“Congressional Republicans and President Trump have just provided us with all the evidence needed to conclude that the Congressional Review Act is nothing more than a crass corporate payback scheme,” Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said. “Republicans repealed 14 popular and important public protections, including measures to protect consumers, worker health, and the environment. They even repealed a rule to protect privacy on the Internet; it’s hard to imagine that any American not connected to the telecom industry favored that move – but Republicans responded to their political patrons nonetheless. If there was any doubt before, it’s now certain that the CRA must go. Public Citizen applauds Senators Booker and Udall and Rep. Cicilline for introducing legislation to repeal the CRA.”

In addition to repealing the CRA, the Sunset the CRA and Restore American Protections (SCRAP) Act would remove the prohibition on agencies reissuing a previously overturned rule and would give those agencies greater flexibility in reinstating such rules.

The CRA was designed to go after “midnight” rules issued in the final days of an administration, but as written, it authorizes rule reversals going as far back as six months or more into the previous administration. Since early February, House and Senate Republican leadership in Congress has used the CRA to reverse 14 agency rules, yet prior to this Congress, the CRA had been used only once in 20 years.

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CONYERS STATEMENT ON GRASSLEY TREATMENT OF CBC MEMBERS TESTIFYING AT SESSIONS HEARING TODAY

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Congressman Cedric Richmond will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to Senator Jeff Sessions’ nomination for U.S. Attorney General. These Members are being required to testify as part of a third joint panel with non-Members of Congress and must sit through the hearing until the panel starts. After calling Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr., the current longest serving Member of Congress and co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, today issued the following statement in regards to the lack of courtesy typically afforded to Members of Congress who testify at hearings:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“As the Dean of the House, former Committee Chairman and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I reject the lack of comity and respect afforded to my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues who will testify in opposition to Senator Sessions during his confirmation hearing. Booker, Lewis and Richmond are being required to testify with non-Members of Congress, and remain seated during the hearing for an indefinite period of time before offering their testimony during the last panel of the hearing. 

“In the past, both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees have had a relationship based upon mutual respect and courtesy. What is set to take place today strongly deviates from the high level of cooperation we’ve always bestowed one another as colleagues in the United States Congress. I urge Chairman Grassley to reconsider the tone he is setting from this moment forward. As very busy Members of Congress with packed schedules, I believe Senator Booker, and Representatives Lewis and Richmond should have been able to provide their testimony on a member-only panel at the start of the hearing.”

Testimony begins at 3:38:24 Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©