Trump Is Flogging a Terrible, Dangerous Idea
WASHINGTON – President Trump today is scheduled to tout one of his worst ideas since taking office: a dangerous order directing federal agencies to kill two regulations for every new one added.
The following is a statement by Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council:
“Don’t be fooled. President Trump is trying to deny Americans the basic protections they rightly expect. New efforts to stop pollution don’t automatically make two existing protections unnecessary. This order imposes a false choice between clean air, clean water, safe food and other environmental safeguards. This deregulatory frenzy is a push to lower costs for industry. What is totally absent here is even the slightest effort to remember that rules protect our health.
“The White House Office of Management and Budget’s ‘Unified Agenda of Regulation and Deregulatory Actions’ is a roadmap of how the Trump administration is putting public health at grave risk.’’
NRDC and partners filed suit over the order, which requires that agencies violate laws under which they operate.
In the lawsuit, filed in the federal district court here, the plaintiffs claim, among other things, that the order goes beyond President Trump’s authority under the Constitution and that agencies cannot comply with the order without violating the laws under which they operate. They also claim that the order will block or force the repeal of regulations needed to protect health, safety and the environment.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to stop the administration from implementing and enforcing the order.
A copy of the complaint is posted here.
More background on the lawsuit is here.
For more background, see NRDC’s January press release.
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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.