In the coming weeks, I, along with other Members of Congress, will explore the various options which Congress could use to address this Administration s egregious political and anti-environmental actions.
Environmental protection is vitally important, but so is the integrity of our government.
One of the options to be considered is a possible resolution of disapproval, which could be brought up as a privileged motion under the Congressional Review Act. Inhofe noted in his letter that the proposed TMDL rule had drawn more 30,000 public comments and been the subject of 12 Congressional hearings, which together elicited an overwhelming number of concerns and outright opposition to the rule. He said this was why Congress acted to attach an amendment the Military Construction Emergency Relief Appropriations bill seeking to block the Administration from finalizing the rule until such concerns could be properly addressed. Clinton signed the bill into law today, but deliberately bypassed the amendment by having the Environmental Protection Agency rush out the finalized rule before the law was signed or could take effect.