Austin News

Washington, D.C. – On May 23, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) spoke on the House Floor to oppose Republicans’ latest attack on public health and environmental protections, S.J. Res. 11, which would invoke the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from mitigating the harmful air quality impacts of heavy-duty engines.

On December 20, 2022, the EPA finalized Part I of its Clean Trucks Plan – Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards. This rule, which targets the pollution that leads to smog, would affect heavy-duty engines beginning in Model Year 2027 and is expected to reduce dangerous nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution from heavy-duty vehicles like long-haul trucks and school buses by nearly 50 percent by 2045.

To watch Rep. Doggett’s full remarks, click here.

Rep. Doggett’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

Thank you so much. It reminds me of Texas – in fact, it reminds me of someone with whom I served in the Texas Legislature.

He was asked what he’d done there. And he said “Oh, I am not here to do anything. I’m just here in case somebody else decides to do something.”

Well, that’s the approach of these extreme House Republicans. They have no plan to protect our families from pollution, to protect our planet from the climate crisis.

Following their seditious leader, Donald Trump, they’re just here to say “no.”

For some reason, anytime we have a success that is green, it just makes them see red.

Democrats are choosing to stand with families that are concerned about real health problems, like bronchitis, childhood asthma, and cardiovascular disease that is caused and accentuated by pollution.

We need some heavy-duty action today to protect our lungs and the lungs of our planet. Yet, they object to even this modest heavy-duty truck rule—the first updating of this pollution standard in 20 years.

With their fossilized thinking and smoggy judgment, Republicans are permitting our planet to overheat, and with this rule rollback, they would ensure that we keep choking during the overheating.

As health-harming pollutants enter our air and bake, smog pollutes our cities and endangers our most vulnerable. To prevent announcements of yet another “ozone action day,” what we need is a little ozone action right here in the Capitol.

When this truck rule takes effect, each year, we will see tens of thousands fewer cases of childhood asthma – fewer premature deaths.

Yet, MAGA extremists are not content with merely polluting our minds – as they do across this country – they refuse to prevent smog and soot from polluting our lungs. 

Yes, life is a highway, but it need not be overwhelmed with health-harming pollution. Adopting a cleaner standard for trucks protects us all, but especially the most vulnerable, the young, the elderly, and those with respiratory ailments. 

You may remember a great musical that proclaimed, “On a clear day, you can see forever,” but not so much now, not so often or much in America, even in our too-often smoggy national parks.

Democrats and Republicans may not see eye-to-eye on much. But we should be able to be clear on smog. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

Once upon a time, long-long ago, conservation was a conservative value. 

A “no” vote is a breath of fresh air—a vote to keep soot out of our lungs.  

Original source can be found here.